SpaceX made history last week when it landed a used Falcon 9 rocket on one of its drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean. Never before has the space transport outfit attempted to relaunch one of its recovered rockets, making this a landmark moment in SpaceX’s ongoing rocket reusability mission.
In this Instagram video released earlier tonight, we can see the Falcon 9 landing down on the drone ship safe and sound. Because the video feed during this particular portion cut out during the live launch event, this is the first footage we’re seeing of the landing, but it looks like it was a textbook affair. Images uploaded to SpaceX’s Flickr account suggest the same.
It’s not the first time SpaceX has landed a Falcon 9 rocket on a drone ship — last week’s mission marked its sixth successful attempt — but it was a particular milestone for the company because it performed the feat using a rocket that had already gone into space. Impressively, tonight’s video shows that SpaceX pulled off perhaps its smoothest landing yet, with barely a wobble as the Falcon 9 rocket touched down.