SpaceX Lands Rocket On Floating Barge

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SpaceX landed its unmanned rocket on a seaborne platform Friday, the first success after four failed attempts to get the rocket launched and then returned, unscathed, to a floating landing pad. The Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral at 4:43 p.m. with the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship, bound for the International Space Station. After the booster descended toward the platform floating in the Atlantic, it corrected its position and touched down on the pad, where it remained standing as crews headed to the platform to secure it, the Washington Post reported.

The touchdown came after months of setbacks for SpaceX, including last June’s explosion of the rocket shortly after launch. In January, the rocket landed on the floating platform but fell over and exploded. By then the company had pretty much proven its concept of a reusable rocket to keep launch costs down, and had successful touchdowns on land-based pads. Friday’s landing, the first of its kind, allows SpaceX to continue toward its goal of manned spaceflights for NASA by 2017. “It’s another step toward the stars. In order for us to really open up access to space we have to have full and rapid reusability,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in the Post report.

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