SpaceX launched a commercial satellite into space on Thursday with the boost of a partly used rocket, a feat that may open an era of cheaper space travel.

A Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX — formally Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, based in Hawthorne, Calif. — lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to deposit the payload, a telecommunications satellite that will service Latin America, in the proper orbit.

What was noteworthy was that the first stage, or booster, of the rocket had already flown once before. It could conceivably launch again, since it returned in one piece, landing on a floating platform in the Atlantic.

“It did this mission perfectly,” Mr. Musk said during a SpaceX broadcast of the launch. “It dropped off the second stage, came back and landed on the drone ship. Right in the bulls-eye.”</s>SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully delivered the SES-10 communications satellite Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The first stage of the rocket then successfully landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The historic mission marked the first re-use of a rocket. Falcon 9’s first stage for the SES-10 mission previously supported the successful CRS-8 mission in April 2016.



SES-10, which was built by Airbus Defence and Space and is based on the Eurostar E3000 platform, features a Ku-band payload of 55 36MHz transponder equivalents, of which 27 are incremental. The satellite is wholly dedicated to providing service to Latin America, replacing capacity currently provided by other SES satellites at 67 degrees West, as well as bring additional capacity to Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. The satellite will operate as the Andean Community’s Simón Bolivar 2 providing satellite capacity for each Andean Member State.</s>Stage 1 of the Falcon 9 rocket that launched today was first used to boost a Dragon vehicle on a supply run to the International Space Station. The same rocket was also the first to successfully land on SpaceX's drone barge. The first stage represents about 80 percent of the cost of a rocket launch, so when Musk describes the next era in space exploration, he is referring to the new opportunities that will come with the significant cost savings.

Meanwhile, the SES-10 vehicle that topped today's rocket launch will go on to a geostationary orbit where it will deliver direct-to-home broadcasting, broadband and mobile services in Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and South America.</s>SpaceX is poised to make history on Thursday with the first relaunch of a used Falcon 9 rocket into space from Launch Complex 39A at Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The space-transportation company is scheduled to launch SES-10, a commercial communications satellite for the Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES, into orbit at 6:27 PM EST (11:27 PM BST).

The rocket's lower section - first stage - has already been the space and back in the CRS-8 mission when it was sent cargo to the International Space Station for Nasa in April 2016. The booster was then successfully landed on a floating platform in the Atlantic.

This launch will mark the first time SpaceX has attempted to reuse one of its rockets in a major milestone for the company attempting to reuse rockets and considerably lower launch costs. Until now, rocket stages are typically discarded. The first stage and clamshell of the Falcon 9 rocket are new.

SpaceX will again attempt to land the first stage on the "Of Course I Still Love You" droneship in the Atlantic Ocean after takeoff, which means the vehicle could see more flight time going forward as well. The company has successfully landed and recovered eight rockets to date.

"We're at the edge of quite a significant bit of history here," Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer at SES said in a statement. "We've been through this thing with a fine-toothed comb. SpaceX have been through this with a fine-toothed comb. This booster is a really good booster, and we're confident."

SES is also getting a discount for launching the SES 10 satellite on a rocket with a previously flown first stage. New Falcon 9 rockets are usually advertised at around $62m (£49.8m) each.

Halliwell said the reusability factor is not just "an issue about money."

"Will re-usability lead to cheaper prices? I hope so, but for us it's also about having a route to space," Halliwell told BBC News. "We've been waiting for six months now to fly SES-10, and that's because there was no other alternative opportunity.

"If we can start getting the rocket companies looking toward re-usability and going down this path, we should have much more flexibility in being able to launch our various different missions."

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has also long touted the concept of "full and rapid reusability" to revolutionise and reduce the cost of space access. With a backlog of 70 missions worth over $10m, the company plans to launch its Falcon 9 rockets every two to three weeks this year from the new launch pad at the Kennedy Space Centre.

"I think this is a really good milestone for the future of space flight," Musk said after the rocket booster's successful landing last year. "I think it's another step towards the stars. In order for us to really open up access to space, we've got to achieve full and rapid reusability. And being able to do that for the primary rocket booster is going to have a huge impact on cost."

The two and a half hour launch window is scheduled to open at 6:27PM EST on 30 March with the satellite deploying about 32 minutes after liftoff. It will be livestreamed on SpaceX's hosted webcast on YouTube.</s>SpaceX Falcon 9's recycled first stage lands on drone ship after launch

The launch was the first attempt by SpaceX at sending the well-known Falcon 9 rocket back to space — and since, it's already been there back in April 2016, when it delivered necessary supplies to the crew of the International Space Station (ISS), it's been labeled as "recycled."

​"Falcon 9 first stage has landed on Of Course I Still Love You [drone ship] — world’s first reflight of an orbital class rocket," SpaceX wrote on its official Twitter page on Thursday, minutes after it announced the liftoff of Falcon 9, Sputnik reported.

The SpaceX project has been four years in the making, while Elon Musk, who heads the California-based company, has been trying to refine the technology.

Over recent months SpaceX has suffered a series of delays. In January, they confirmed that Falcon 9 would not launch after the rocket was involved in an accident.</s>Just before 6:30 pm ET, SpaceX -- run by Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk -- launched a used rocket. It marked the first time in the history of spaceflight that the same rocket has been used on two separate missions to orbit.

After successfully launching a satellite toward geosynchronous orbit -- 22,000 miles into space -- the rocket then returned to Earth and landed on a remotely piloted platform, known as a droneship, in the Atlantic Ocean. It marks the company's sixth successful landing on a seaborne platform.

The SpaceX video showed the empty droneship, named Of Course I Still Love You, awaiting the return of the rocket, set against a deep blue ocean background. The video feed cut out momentarily and then came back on to show the rocket standing upright on the platform. The landing took place about eight minutes after launch.

"It shows you can fly and refly an orbit-class booster, which is the most expensive part of the rocket," Musk said on a SpaceX webcast. "This is ultimately a huge revolution in spaceflight."

Related: SpaceX to fly two space tourists around the moon in 2018

The launch was a huge step for SpaceX. Reusing rockets is essential for companies like SpaceX that want to drive down the cost of space travel.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket costs about $62 million. Using it more than once can drastically bring down the price of a single launch.

The company confirmed to CNNMoney in August that its client for this trip received a discount on the Falcon 9 sticker price, but it declined to say by how much.

COO Gwynne Shotwell said in an interview that aired on SpaceX's webcast of the flight that reusable rockets are also a huge leap forward for SpaceX's plans to travel to Mars.

"Given the goals of SpaceX are to provide space transportation to other planets, we want to make sure whoever we take can come back," she said.

Obviously, she said, that requires developing rockets that can launch more than once.

SpaceX has been working toward its goal of using recycled rockets for more than a year. It's made 14 attempts to recover the first stage of its Falcon 9 rockets, and so far nine have been successful.

The rocket that SpaceX used during Thursday's mission was previously used in an April 2016 mission to the International Space Station. After launch, it was guided to a landing on the same droneship.

Related: SpaceX successfully tests Raptor engine it plans to send to Mars

That same droneship, named Of Course I Still Love You, also recaptured the first-stage rocket on Thursday.

But recapturing the rocket was a secondary concern for SpaceX. The primary goal was to deliver a communications satellite into geosynchronous orbit for the company that commissioned this launch, SES.

The satellite -- called SES-10 -- is intended to provide improved TV, radio, telephone and internet coverage for South America. SES says SES-10 will also have "the ability to support off-shore oil and gas exploration."

SpaceX announced about 32 minutes after takeoff that the satellite had been successfully deployed.</s>As well as successfully launching the payload, SpaceX was also able to recover the Falcon 9’s first stage for a second time.

Today’s successful landing of the refurbished Falcon 9 marks the second time the rocket has seen use.

Previously, SpaceX had launched and landed its rockets some 13 times. On Monday, SpaceX said it test-fired the entire rocket, including the recycled booster, on the launch pad.

There have been no reports if the Luxembourg-based SES Corp. got a big discount on this launch, testing the reused rocket.

Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer at SES has refused to discuss the cost of the Falcon 9 flight, however he stressed that the launch will be historic. SpaceX is hoping the boosters can be re-used as many as 10 or 15 times.

Currently, millions of dollars worth of rocket parts are jettisoned after each launch. This is a huge accomplishment because it already did this once before – with the same rocket, on the same barge, when it landed a year ago following a successful launch during a resupply mission to the International Space Station.

According to information released by SpaceX, the SES-10 satellite was placed in a geostationary transfer orbit with no apparent problems.

The SES mission will hoist a commercial satellite to serve communications in Latin America.

Its tall, columnar portion known as the first stage, or booster, had already propelled the unmanned Dragon cargo ship to space in April 2016. If it can be used a few times, SpaceX can drastically bring down the price of a single launch. “It’s really a great day not just for SpaceX but the space industry as a whole, and proving that something can be done that many said was impossible”. “This is going to be ultimately a huge revolution in spaceflight”, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said after the successful mission, calling it an “amazing day” for the space industry. SES officials preferred the words “flight-proven” to used. During the space shuttle program, the twin booster rockets dropped away two minutes into flight and parachuted into the Atlantic for recovery.

“If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred”, said Musk on the SpaceX website. Four previous SpaceX at-sea landing attempts failed.

The company is getting pretty good at returning rockets to Earth: After 13 attempts in recent years, the company has stuck eight of them.</s>Elon Musk's SpaceX is set to make history this evening by sending its first recycled rocket back into space.

In what could be a 'revolutionary' achievement for space technology, the firm is reusing a booster that previously sent food and supplies to astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

The launch of the Dragon cargo ship is scheduled from Cape Canaveral for 6:27 pm eastern time today (11:27 pm BST).

Reusable rockets would cut costs and waste in the space industry, which currently loses millions of dollars in jettisoned machinery after each launch. Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency are also developing similar technology and are in testing stages. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com and owner of The Washington Post newspaper, said last month that Blue Origin expects to begin crewed test flights of the New Shepard, the company's flagship rocket, next year and begin flying paying passengers as early as 2018. The Indian space agency also hopes to develop its own frugal shuttle, as it seeks to cash in on a huge and lucrative demand from other countries to send up their satellites, after a successful test launch last month.

Standing tall at the Nasa launchpad, the white Falcon 9 rocket contains the tall, column-like booster stage of the vessel.

This propelled the unmanned Dragon cargo ship to the ISS last year, before returning to an upright landing on an ocean platform.

SpaceX is hoping to repeat this success and prove the long-term viability of reusable rockets - which could dramatically costs and waste in the space industry.

The firm plans to launch during a 2.5 hour window that begins at 6pm local time.

Its goal is to send the SES-10 satellite - built by Airbus Defence and Space - into orbit around the planet.

The satellite will be used to provide direct-to-home television and high-speed data services across Latin America and the Caribbean.

SES was an early supporter of SpaceX, the rocket builder's first commercial customer and the first to sign up for a ride on a 'flight proven' booster.

'Having been the first commercial satellite operator to launch with SpaceX back in 2013, we are excited to once again be the first customer to launch on SpaceX's first ever mission using a flight-proven rocket,' Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer at SES, said.

'We believe reusable rockets will open up a new era of spaceflight, and make access to space more efficient in terms of cost and manifest management.'

The Dragon, which was first launched on April 8, 2016, was the first the firm managed to land on a droneship.

After recovery, it was taken back to Port Canaveral and subjected to a detailed post flight inspection.

It was then refurbished, tested again and prepared for its second launch.

On Monday, the firm test fired the nine first-stage engines of the previously flown Falcon 9 booster stage in the final pre-flight test in anticipation of today's launch.

'Static fire test complete. Targeting Thursday, March 30 for Falcon 9 launch of SES-10,' the firm tweeted following the tests.

In the test, the rocket's nine Merlin 1D engines roared to life at 2 p.m. EDT (GMT-5) for three seconds at pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

Known as a 'hot-fire' test, it is a routine pre-flight procedure for SpaceX to help engineers verify the rocket is ready for launch.

SpaceX has made 13 attempts to recover first stages after launch, successfully bringing back eight boosters to date.

The first stage assigned to the SES-10 mission was first launched on April 7, 2016, helping boost a SpaceX cargo ship into orbit to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. The first stage completed SpaceX’s second successful landing, its first on a droneship. After recovery, the stage was hauled back to Port Canaveral and subjected to a detailed post flight inspection. It was then refurbished, tested again and prepared for its second launch. It was the fifth attempt at landing the rocket upright - a feat that could pave the way for cheaper space travel. SpaceX has succeeded in landing its Falcon 9 rocket on a barge in the Atlantic ocean. It was the firm's fifth attempt at landing the rocket upright It follows four failed landings by SpaceX on an autonomous barge, and one successful landing on solid ground in December. Before coming back down to Earth, the rocket launched nearly 7,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station, including an inflatable 'space house'. Elon Musk hailed the landing as 'another step to the stars,' at a Nasa press conference. He revealed the firm plans to relaunch the same rocket. 'We're going to wash it down, fill it with fuel, and launch it again,' he said. 'The plan is to bring it to port, pick it up with a crane and fold the legs up and put it on a truck to bring it back to Pad 39A. 'We'll do ten test firings, and if that goes well and we think we'll be comfortable with an orbital flight.' Musk revealed how tough the landing was, saying there were winds of 50mph at sea above the drone ship. 'The craft tilted into the wind as it descended due to 50mph wind,' he said. He said future landings were expected to be half on ground and half at sea.

Five of those landed on off-shore drone ships while three returned to landings at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Last month amazing video shows the historic moment the first stage of the Falcon 9 touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on the launch pad.

The SpaceX rocket descended through the clouds before landing right in the middle of the pad, a perfect landing after a rocky start.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk captioned the video on Instagram: 'Baby came back'

The rocket has landed five other times successfully on sea platforms but this is the first time on land.

This is the first SpaceX mission to take off from the pad, and the first in Florida since last September.

One of the company's rockets exploded on another Cape Canaveral pad, severely damaging it.

It is also the third SpaceX rocket to land on solid ground.

The moment indicates that NASA's moonshot pad is back in business.

The rocket, which was sent up from the same spot from which astronauts flew to the moon 48 years ago, carried a Dragon supply ship containing food and other goods for the six astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The pad - at Launch Complex 39A - has been leased by SpaceX for the next six years. It was last used for NASA's final shuttle mission nearly six years ago.

After it had launched from Launch Complex 39A and made the payload, the booster rocket was returned safely to earth at a different part of Cape Canaveral.

That made it the third SpaceX rocket to be successfully landed on solid ground, and the first to do so in daylight. Five other successful landings have been made on sea-based platforms.</s>The company made history yesterday when it launched a used rocket into space for a second time and brought the “most expensive part” safely back to earth. The first-stage booster - which was previously launched into space last year - detached itself after the launch and landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. "I think it's an amazing day for space," said Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX.

"It means you can fly and re-fly an orbit class booster, which is the most expensive part of the rocket. “This is going to be, hopefully, a huge revolution in spaceflight." The successful launch, from Cape Canaveral in Florida, puts the company miles ahead of any space agency or private corporation to date.

Founded in 2003, SpaceX has quickly grown to become a pioneer in the development of reusable space rockets. The company designs and manufactures rockets that sends satellites into orbit around Earth - and one day it hopes to send people into space.

SpaceX is the only private company ever to bring back a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit. This feat was first accomplished in December 2010.

Today the company is under a $1.6 billion (£1.2 billion) contract with NASA to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with cargo. Elon Musk, the genius billionaire behind SpaceX, believes humanity has to progress into a space-faring civilisation in the future. At the 67th International Astronautical Congress, Elon Musk said: “History is going to bifurcate on two paths.

“One path is people will stay on Earth forever and there will be some eventual extinction event. “The alternative is to become a space-faring civilisation and a multi-planet species.” This belief has driven SpaceX to set the goal of reaching Mars with a robotic vessel by 2020.

The Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket model designed to allow the transportation of satellites and cargo into orbit. The successful launch yesterday marked the first time that a rocket’s first-stage booster was reused and sent back into space again. In 2012 the Falcon 9s became the private vessels to deliver cargo to supply the ISS with resources.</s>The countdown is on. SpaceX is set to launch a recycled rocket to space for the first time.

Liftoff is scheduled for Thursday at 6:27 p.m. ET at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The launch will mark the first time SpaceX -- the private space venture headed by Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk -- will use a first-stage rocket booster that was previously flown to space and returned safely to Earth.

The company said on Twitter around noon that the rocket is on the launch pad.

There's a backup launch window on April 1, according to SpaceX, in case the flight needs to be postponed due to bad weather or issues with the rocket.

Related: A first for SpaceX: Sending a used rocket into space

The launch is a big step for SpaceX. Reusing rockets is essential for companies like SpaceX that want to drive down the cost of space travel.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket costs about $62 million. If it can be used more than once, SpaceX can drastically bring down the price of a single launch.

SpaceX confirmed to CNNMoney in August that its client for this trip will get a discount on the Falcon 9 sticker price, but it declined to say by how much.

The rocket that SpaceX will use Thursday was previously used in an April 2016 mission to the International Space Station. After launch, it was guided to a landing on a seaborne platform, called a droneship.

After its launch Thursday evening, SpaceX will again attempt to guide the first-stage rocket booster onto a droneship.

Related: SpaceX to fly two space tourists around the moon in 2018

But recapturing the rocket is a secondary concern for SpaceX. The primary goal is to deliver a communications satellite into geosynchronous orbit -- about 22,000 miles from Earth -- for the company that commissioned this launch, SES.

The satellite -- called SES-10 -- is intended to provide TV, radio, telephone and internet coverage for South America. SES says SES-10 will also have "the ability to support off-shore oil and gas exploration."
SpaceX successfully places the SES-10 telecommunications satellite on a geostationary transfer orbit. The event is notable because of the implied economic cost savings of reusing, for the first time, a used Falcon 9 first stage which had previously been recovered. That first stage had previously launched a Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station and landed on an autonomous drone ship during the CRS-8 mission.