SpaceX successfully lands a Falcon 9 reusable rocket for the first time

Shawn Knight

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SpaceX has successfully landed one of its Falcon 9 rockets for the first time. It's a significant accomplishment albeit one that's a bit overshadowed as one of the company's main rivals pulled off the same feat nearly a month earlier.

The latest Falcon 9 mission launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 8:29 p.m. on Monday, carrying a payload of 11 commercial satellites. Roughly two and a half minutes later, the first stage rocket broke free to begin its descent back to earth. The 14-story-tall rocket safely touched down about 10 minutes after launch; pandemonium broke out among SpaceX employees.

The cargo, meanwhile, was safely deployed into orbit roughly 500 miles up.

While Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin may have beaten Elon Musk and SpaceX to the punch, it's worth pointing out that Blue Origin's rocket was a smaller stage that traveled slower and not as far into space as the Falcon 9.

It's also worth mentioning the fact that SpaceX elected to land the Falcon 9 on solid ground versus on a floating barge in the middle of the ocean as it had done with the past couple of attempts.

This is the first mission for SpaceX since June when one of its Falcon 9 rockets carrying cargo to the International Space Station exploded shortly after takeoff.

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Jules Vern would be elated, Spock would actually smile and the rest of the universe rejoices at your success ..... bravo!
 
Congratulations to SpaceX!!! This is history!!!!
In what context?
In the context that Elon Musk built a statue of himself in his mind afterwards.

You also have to take into account, the larger the rocket, there more potent a phallic representation it becomes. Given that Space X's rocket went twice as high as the other guy's, they may have just cause to change their name to, "Space Triple X". :eek:
 
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In the context that Elon Musk built a statue of himself in his mind afterwards.
Don't give the man ideas - I'd hate to read that Musk had broken ground on a modern day Colossus of Rhodes...although I guess if it was built on a 1:1 scale with his ego he could scrap Space X, since you could probably reach at least the Exosphere by riding an interior elevator to Elon's skull
 
Don't give the man ideas - I'd hate to read that Musk had broken ground on a modern day Colossus of Rhodes (*)...although I guess if it was built on a 1:1 scale with his ego he could scrap Space X, since you could probably reach at least the Exosphere by riding an interior elevator to Elon's skull
Or, we could put boosters on the legs, and shoot it into orbit. With Musk's face all wild eyed in a "creative frenzy", we could be certain aliens would realize there's nothing here of value, thereby averting any attempt at an armed invasion.

(*) In the event Musk deems us worthy to receive such largess, could we send a professional yodeler to be 1st inside the skull? :eek:
 
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