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SpaceX lands its Falcon 9 rocket at sea, following first launch since August

SpaceX lands its Falcon 9 rocket at sea, following first launch since August

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SpaceX

Following today’s rocket launch, SpaceX successfully landed its Falcon 9 on the company’s drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. It’s the first landing SpaceX has done since August, and the fifth time one of these vehicles has landed at sea. However, this marks SpaceX’s first landing in the Pacific and the first landing for the drone ship "Just Read The Instructions." The feat brings the total number of recovered SpaceX rockets to seven, as two other Falcon 9 vehicles have successfully touched down on solid ground after a launch.

It’s the first landing SpaceX has done since August

The company has been on a hiatus from spaceflight, after one of its Falcon 9s exploded on a launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in September. During a routine fueling procedure, the vehicle suddenly ignited in a giant fireball, which destroyed both the rocket and the satellite it was supposed to carry into space. The accident temporarily halted all Falcon 9 launches — and thus, landings.

But now that SpaceX is back to launching rockets again, the company is back to landing them too. And that puts SpaceX back in a position to finally reuse one of these reusable vehicles. Originally, SpaceX had been aiming to launch a landed rocket for the first time in fall of 2016, but the launchpad explosion put those plans on pause.

SpaceX had already picked out which vehicle it wanted to use, too. The company planned to fly the Falcon 9 that sent cargo to the International Space Station in April — and the vehicle that became the first to land successfully on a drone ship at sea. That vehicle was supposed to launch a satellite for the Luxembourg-based company SES, which has been eager to launch on the first reused rocket.

It’s unclear if those plans have changed in the wake of the accident. But the whole point of landing these rockets is to use them again in order to bring down the cost of access to space. Typically, rockets go unrecovered after a flight, which means an entirely new vehicle has to be made for each mission. Saving the majority of a rocket has the potential to bring down manufacturing costs, but the long-term benefits of reusability only start to kick in if the rockets are used again as much — and as frequently — as possible.

Saving the majority of a rocket has the potential to bring down manufacturing costs

And SpaceX seems to be in need of ways to cut costs. The company lost $260 million and had a 6 percent drop in revenue in 2015, according to financial reports obtained by The Wall Street Journal. Those losses came after one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets disintegrated en route to the International Space Station in June of that year, causing the company to delay its launches for six months.

The company is likely experiencing similar budget issues now after the September 2016 explosion. Meanwhile, SpaceX has high hopes that its planned constellation of internet-beaming satellites will bring in more than $30 billion in revenue by 2025. Those plans are still in development, though, and a factory hasn’t been built yet.

Still, all signs point to SpaceX having a busy year ahead. Those financial reports reported by the WSJ revealed that SpaceX had planned to launch 20 rockets in 2016 and 27 rockets this year. Since only eight rockets flew last year, SpaceX has a lot of customers that need to get into space in 2017. So it’s possible we could see many more landings — and a few previously flown rockets — flying again soon.