SpaceX rocket successfully lands on drone ship
SpaceX has released footage showing three different views of the Falcon 9 rocket successfully landing on a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean last Friday (local time).
The company described the event as its “hottest and fastest landing yet,” in a tweet accompanying the footage.
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The rocket landed after launching a Japanese communications satellite, the JCSAT-14, into orbit.
It marks the third time SpaceX has successfully landed a rocket after landing another in December and April.
Launch trajectory of Japanese commercial satellite JCSat-14, enroute to 36,000 km above Earth pic.twitter.com/QHiiMdMMJ3
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 6, 2016
There was some uncertainty surrounding the success of the rocket’s re-entry in the lead up to the landing, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeting that “re-entry was a lot faster and hotter than last time”.
“So, odds of making it are maybe even, but we should learn a lot either way,” he said.
However, the returning rocket landed gently after being programmed to fly itself back to a floating landing pad off Florida’s east coast.