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Anything you can do鈥� SpaceX鈥檚 upgraded Falcon 9 rocket delivered 11 satellites into orbit before landing upright at Cape Canaveral, Florida, last night, less than a month after rival company Blue Origin returned a rocket to Earth from the edge of space.
It was SpaceX鈥檚 first launch since June, when a Falcon 9 delivering cargo to the International Space Station exploded shortly after launch, and its third attempt to execute a safe landing.
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SpaceX, founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Blue Origin, founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, have been racing to develop reusable rockets in their quest to make space flight more affordable. 鈥淲elcome to the club!鈥� .
Although Blue Origin pulled off a flight to space and back on 23 November, it didn鈥檛 put its payload into orbit 鈥� a distinction , demanding much more fuel than a straight up-and-down flight.
Celebratory atmosphere
Last night鈥檚 launch, carrying satellites for communications company Orbcomm, was the first time an orbital rocket鈥檚 booster stage has been brought back to a landing site near its origin. Most rockets are designed for a single use, and dumped in the sea after separating from their payload.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been a very celebratory atmosphere here at SpaceX. I think people are really overjoyed,鈥� Musk said in a media conference. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield the achievement 鈥渙pens a brand new door to space travel鈥�.
It costs $16 million to make a Falcon 9, and $200,000 to fuel it. SpaceX won鈥檛 try to fly the landed rocket again, but it will perform a static fire test to check if it still works, Musk said.
On two previous attempts, SpaceX has tried to land its rocket on a boat, but it came down too fast, and on one occasion exploded. This time, they got permission from the Federal Aviation Authority to land at a decommissioned launch site they have leased and repurposed at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Percentage game
The launch was originally scheduled for Sunday evening, but it was delayed by 24 hours after a mathematical model predicted that a delay would improve the chances of a successful landing by 10 per cent.
The last Falcon 9 to blast off exploded two minutes after launch on 28 June. A strut holding down a helium bottle within a propellant tank in the rocket鈥檚 upper stage broke, causing the tank to overpressurise and burst, according to Musk. It was the rocket鈥檚 first failure in 19 launches.
Since then, the company has made several changes to the design, including increasing the thrust of the engines, improving the stage separation system, and stretching the upper stage to hold extra propellant. It鈥檚 also using supercooled liquid oxygen propellant, at -207聽掳C, to make it denser and improve performance.
SpaceX plans to start launching manned missions with Falcon 9 in 2017. Ultimately, Musk wants to take millions of people to Mars.
Image credit:聽Space X
