SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Safely Lands in Atlantic Ocean

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launched the cargo-filled Dragon spacecraft into space to deliver goods for the astronauts aboard the International Space Station last week. The most recent resupply mission also tested whether or not the Falcon 9 could be reused.

The Falcon 9 is a "two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit," according to SpaceX.com. Last Saturday it launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida to conduct the SpaceX-3 Commercial Resupply Services flight.

The mission was also the first to find out if the rocket can be reused for future resupply missions, which would save millions of dollars for both SpaceX and NASA in the future. At a press conference yesterday, SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk told the media that the Falcon 9 completed a successful soft landing in the Atlantic Ocean. It was destroyed by high waves, but the landing is great news.

SpaceX is still under contract with NASA through 2016 and will conduct nine more commercial resupply missions to the ISS, so the news that the Falcon 9 rocket could potentially be reused for a number of those missions is a milestone for the private space company. SpaceX has already achieved a milestone with the rocket, as they were the first commercial company to visit the ISS back in 2012.

The 68.4-meter high and 1,115,200-pound rocket used its engines to slow its fall from high up in the atmosphere. It then deployed a set of legs to make a soft landing, but for safety reasons it landed far out in the Atlantic and could not be salvaged after two days at sea after it sunk. If the rocket is successfully hauled out from the water after the next resupply mission, SpaceX believes it can recover the rocket's propellant stages and reuse it for another launch, but it'll take some experimentation first.

"I think what we'll have to do is do a demonstration re-flight without an operational satellite onboard. And if that demonstration re-flight works, and some customers may want more than one - then that's the thing that would really ultimately convince them," said Musk in this BBC News article.

If it can be reused, future missions could see savings upwards of 70% for the $60 million missions, and Musk says that the reusability could lead to a hundred-fold cost improvement.

You can read more about the Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX, and Elon Musk in this Forbes.com article.