SpaceX launches military satellite, successfully lands Falcon 9 rocket

PanARMENIAN.Net - On Monday, May 1 morning, SpaceX successfully landed its Falcon 9 rocket on solid ground again, after launching the vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida, The Verge says.

The vehicle’s first stage — the 14-story core of the rocket that contains the main engines — touched down at the company’s landing pad called Landing Zone 1, located just off the coast of the Cape. It’s the fourth time SpaceX has landed one of its rockets on land, and the 10th time the company has successfully recovered a rocket post-launch.

The rocket took off at 7:15AM ET, lofting a secret spy satellite dubbed NROL-76 for the National Reconnaissance Office. It’s the first mission that SpaceX has done for the US military, after receiving certification to launch satellites for the Air Force in 2015. Since this was a national security launch, not much is known about the purpose of Monday's mission, or the satellite’s intended orbit.

Additionally, the live broadcast of Monday's launch was a bit different than SpaceX’s commercial missions. The livestream only showed viewers shots of the rocket’s initial descent, and didn’t reveal many views of the rocket as it ventured deeper into space. Instead, the audience was treated to multiple views of the Falcon 9 first stage as it made its descent back to Earth. In fact, there was a nearly continuous shot of the falling rocket taken from the ground.

SpaceX hopes to use its landed Falcon 9 rockets more frequently and drastically decrease turnaround time from the vehicle’s landing to another mission. Last month, CEO Elon Musk said he’s challenged the SpaceX team with getting a landed first stage ready for flight again in as little as 24 hours.