SpaceX successfully launches its first recycled rocket but what next?

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation better known as SpaceX has made history by successfully launching a “pre-flown” rocket on Thursday. Stated as one of the major achievements in aerospace, the company has relaunched a booster out of Earth’s orbit. The CEO of SpaceX Elon musk called it as “a milestone in the history of space”.

After the satellite was launched toward geosynchronous orbit – 22,000 miles into space the rocket returned to Earth and then landed on a remotely piloted platform, also known as droneship, in the Atlantic Ocean.

In the video, the droneship was shown with name – ‘Of Course I still Love You’, awaiting return of the launched rocket – Falcon 9. The video buffering had many jitters and was cut out momentarily but was then back projecting rocket’s successful land (standing upright on the platform. The rocket, Falcon 9, took around eight minutes to place itself on the droneship after the launch.

“It shows you can fly and refly an orbit-class booster, which is the most expensive part of the rocket,” Musk said on a SpaceX webcast. “This is ultimately a huge revolution in spaceflight.”

Next Goal

After an immense proud moment, Elon Musk went on to Twitter to share his next goal for SpaceX, which is to launch a rocket twice in 24 hours.

The ‘re-launch’ will contribute to the company as it will cut short the overall cost of travelling into space significantly. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket costs about $62 million. Using it more than once can drastically bring down the price of a single launch.

Space X was working on using recycled rockets for more than a year, the company had made 14 attempts to recover the first stage of its Falcon 9 rockets, and so far has nine rockets were recovered successfully.

The company’s intention to recapture the rocket was a secondary concern, the primary goal was to deliver a communications satellite into geosynchronous orbit for the company that commissioned this launch.