SpaceX launches rocket capable of multiple flights

Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket company has launched its second Falcon 9 rocket in 48 hours, taking another step towards renewable space flight.

The craft was sent into orbit to put up ten Iridium satellites to improve mobile phone coverage.

It was fitted with a "more durable set of grid fins" to stabilise the rocket "as it descends back to Earth", reports ArsTechnica.

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Previous fins had "caught fire due to atmospheric heating", adds the site. The new versions "are designed for multiple re-uses as SpaceX seeks to more toward rapid reuse of its first stage booster".

It's a significant development into frequent and reusable space flight. Musk said the updated Falcon 9 "should be capable of an indefinite number of flights with no service".

The rocket launched on Sunday at the company's Vandenberg Air Force base in California, two days after a Falcon 9 last used in January went into orbit to deploy another batch of satellites, says TechCrunch.

Developing rockets that can be reused for multiple flights could reduce the cost of space travel by around 30 per cent, Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, told Wired.

The company sent its first used Falcon 9 into orbit in March, when the rocket successfully returned to orbit and landed on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

Previously, rockets could only be used on one mission as their booster jets and hulls would burn up on re-entry into the atmosphere.

One of the few exceptions was Nasa's space shuttle, although the BBC says "the complexities of servicing the shuttle system after every flight swamped any savings".

Musk's next milestone is to launch two rockets within 24 hours of each other.