SpaceX Lands (Another) Rocket On A Platform Floating At Sea

SpaceX is getting pretty good at this. The private spaceflight company has landed yet another one of its rockets on a barge in the middle of the ocean after blasting off toward space, the sixth such landing for SpaceX in the last eight months.

The two-stage rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, early Sunday morning to carry a JCSAT-16 commercial communications satellite into Earth's orbit. The first stage of the rocket broke off in mid-air, and about nine minutes after it took off, it landed on a barge floating in the middle of the ocean standing straight up.

The main image above shows the rocket standing peacefully on the platform. SpaceX has not posted full video of the landing yet, but you can watch the scientists' reaction when they see the landing here, at about the 26:25 mark:

Being able to retrieve a rocket intact like this has been a major goal of SpaceX, which wants to make spaceflight cheaper and more accessible. Being able to use a rocket more than once would significantly reduce the cost of space flight and could pave the way for human exploration of Mars and beyond.

SpaceX's first successful rocket landing happened back in December while delivering 16 commercial satellites into orbit.

"I do think it's a revolutionary moment. No one has ever brought an orbital class booster back intact," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said at the time. "We achieved recovery of the rocket in a mission that also deployed 11 satellites. This is a fundamental step change compared to any other rocket that's ever flown."

Since that first landing, SpaceX landed four more, with three failures. Sunday's landing, the company's sixth, wasn't expected to be a sure thing.

"The first-stage will be subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating, making a successful landing challenging," said a mission overview sent to media before the launch.

For those of us without an emotional or commercial attachment to the rockets, the failures have sometimes been more entertaining than the actual landings, such as this video from January, when a rocket teetered precariously on the platform before falling over and exploding:

Image via SpaceX