Elon Musk’s cosmic brainchild, SpaceX, has been making some great strides in the space industry. So much so that most people don’t know of any other company developing space technology. SpaceX has been dominating the private space industry and the proof is in the pudding.This was the twelfth launch made by SpaceX and the seventh that was made at sea, for testing reusable rockets. This is without a doubt one of greatest achievements of all time.

On June 23rd, SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which is a recycled rocket, made its second landing with the fuel unit and main engines intact on one of the company’s autonomous drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean.

The rocket took off from a launchpad situated in Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Not a first feat for the seasoned Falcon 9

The rocket was previously used in January 2017 to put 10 satellites into orbit, the satellites were being put for a communications company by the name of Iridium. Then, the rocket landed on a similar drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. Upon landing, SpaceX took back the rocket to ready it for this launch. It was used to launch another satellite into orbit that belonged to Bulgarian TV service provider Bulsatcom.

Despite having just one satellite this time, the landing was much more difficult that it was previously because the satellite had to be pushed to a much higher orbit than before and as a result, this Falcon 9’s first stage experienced more heat than any other before it during the reentry.

All’s well that end’s well!

There were some worries about the booster not making it back due to the high heat experienced by the rocket but in the end, it was all well and good and everything made it back safely even though the emergency crush core was almost completely utilized.

This is a great push in making reusable rockets a thing of the present rather than the past and a challenge that Elon Musk has taken up and announced ecstatically ever since the start of SpaceX.

Essentially, he wants the company to be able to reuse and repurpose different parts of the rocket instead of making a new one every time a new launch has to take place. Prior to SpaceX, rockets once used were discarded.

This is something that SpaceX is getting used to because, in March, they launched and landed another reused Falcon 9 and even recovered that rocket’s fairing. They have also refused their Dragon cargo capsule that they sent in space earlier in June. The company has launched 8 rockets in a row with this attempt.
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