In a first for SpaceX, the company landed a first-stage booster at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California Sunday night, after launching an Argentine observation satellite.
Since December 2015, SpaceX has successfully landed 11 Falcon 9 boosters at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, but this was the first time the company landed a booster on the West Coast. In order to make launches less expensive, SpaceX lands first-stage boosters and then refurbishes them; a launch on a new Falcon 9 rocket costs $62 million, the Los Angeles Times reports.
This was the company's 44th successful launch in a row, and the first time SpaceX tried a landing at Vandenberg.
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