Space

SpaceX Update: Company's Falcon 9 Recovered Booster Is Now Back At The Port

Alex Davis
First Posted: Jan 19, 2017 04:20 AM EST

SpaceX first stage Falcon 9 rocket that has detached and successfully landed on the landing pad at the Pacific Ocean is back in Southern California.

It has been previously reported that SpaceX successfully launched an uncrewed rocket into orbit. The launch happened on Saturday at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The lift off was marked as crucial and expensive, a test for the private space company in the aftermath of the recent misfire.

SpaceX let the fans take a look at the whole process via live stream. Shortly after the lift off, the two-stage rocket detached its first stage. It landed almost accurately at the company's landing pad at the Pacific Ocean.

Thus, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket has returned, back to the port in Southern California, after the landing that happened on a barge in the Pacific Ocean. It is currently ready for refurbishment and potential reuse in a future mission.

Meanwhile, in a report by CBS LA, before the sunrise on Tuesday, after sailing from the touchdown point in the Pacific, the 15-story booster and its barge, namely, "Just Read The Instructions," were towed into the Port of Los Angeles. It is a few miles south of SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

The latest found rocket is the seventh Falcon 9 first stage to be recovered by SpaceX. The others are counted since December 2015.

As for the SpaceX recovery attempts on land and sea, it is now 7 out of 12 in rocket landing tries after the launches carried satellites into orbit. Also, it was the first time that SpaceX has succeeded in retrieving a rocket that is still intact after a launch from California, according to SpaceFlight Now. 

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