SpaceX successfully launches and lands Falcon 9 rocket
Elon Musk’s SpaceX made history Monday when the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket returned to Earth 10 minutes after its launch and landed safely in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Rocket boosters are usually only used once, and either burn or crash into the ocean after liftoff, but Musk has been trying to develop a reusable rocket in order to make space travel less expensive. Falcon 9’s mission was to deliver 11 commercial satellites into space for the communications company Orbcomm. This was SpaceX’s first launch since its rocket exploded in June carrying cargo to the International Space Station.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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