View the thrilling space journey as a SpaceX rocket makes its descent back to earth
SpaceX, the Elon Musk-led company, has once again made history with a successful landing of a Falcon 9 booster at Cape Canaveral in Florida. This marked the booster's fourth flight, a testament to SpaceX's innovative reusable rocket technology.
The booster, standing tall at 135.2 feet (41.2 meters), played a crucial role in launching Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday evening. The spacecraft carried more than 11,000 pounds (about 4,990 kg) of supplies for the crew aboard the space station.
The landing was facilitated by the booster firing its engines to slow itself as it neared the ground. This maneuver, a staple of SpaceX's operations, has been instrumental in drastically reducing spaceflight costs. In fact, several Falcon 9 boosters have flown for SpaceX more than 20 times.
This isn't the first time SpaceX has achieved a vertical landing of a Falcon 9 booster. The company first accomplished this feat in December 2015. The latest landing provided an opportunity for SpaceX to capture a rare tracking shot of the returning booster, offering a glimpse of the dramatic descent.
SpaceX is applying what it's learned from Falcon 9 landings to its next-generation Starship rocket. The company has worked out how to bring home the Starship's 233-foot-tall first-stage Super Heavy booster, a feat it could attempt for the first time in 2026.
The landing took place at a designated spot at Cape Canaveral, where the booster's legs deployed just before touching down, enabling a soft, steady, and perfect landing. Since its first successful landing, SpaceX has demonstrated over 480 Falcon 9 booster landings.
As SpaceX continues to push the boundaries of space travel, the successful landing of the Falcon 9 booster at Cape Canaveral is a significant step forward. The company's Starship rocket is set to be used for crew and cargo missions to the moon and possibly Mars, furthering SpaceX's ambitions to make life multiplanetary.
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