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SpaceX Achieves Long Sought Historic Feat in Rocket Launch


A long exposure photograph shows the SpaceX Falcon 9 lifting off (L) from its launch pad and then returning to a landing zone (R) at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, on the launcher's first mission since a June failure, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, De
A long exposure photograph shows the SpaceX Falcon 9 lifting off (L) from its launch pad and then returning to a landing zone (R) at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, on the launcher's first mission since a June failure, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, De

Six months after one of its rockets exploded after launch, privately-owned SpaceX resumed operations Monday with a dramatic nighttime launch and a historic landing of its first-stage booster.

The Falcon rocket blasted off from the U.S. spaceport in Cape Canaveral, Florida carrying 11 small satellites into low-Earth orbit for communications firm OrbComm. About two minutes into the flight, the rocket's first-stage separated cleanly from the second stage and began a controlled descent back to Earth.

WATCH: Video of historic rocket

SpaceX Celebrates Historic Rocket Launch, Landing
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Moments later, flight controllers and employees at SpaceX's California headquarters erupted in cheers as television cameras showed the rocket making a pinpoint vertical landing at a former Air Force missile launch site located about nine kilometers from the launch pad.

It was the first time a rocket launched into orbit successfully made a controlled landing on Earth. Another private space ferry company, Blue Origin, owned by Amazon.com founder Jeffrey Bezos, successfully landed a first-stage booster rocket last month after a non-orbital flight.

"Welcome back, baby!," SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted shortly after touchdown. Landing a first-stage rocket back to Earth is part of SpaceX founder Elon Musk's goal of reusing rockets in order to reduce the cost of space travel.

The company's previous attempts, which involved landing the rocket on a floating barge, all ended in failure.

SpaceX is one of several companies contracted by the U.S. space agency NASA to ferry supplies, and, eventually, astronauts to the International Space Station and low-Earth orbit.

The company's Falcon 9 rocket failed during a resupply mission to the ISS. Monday's launch was the first since SpaceX redesigned and upgraded the powerful rocket.

A remodeled version of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rests on its pad as it is prepared for launch at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the launcher's first mission since a June failure in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Dec. 20, 2015.
A remodeled version of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rests on its pad as it is prepared for launch at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the launcher's first mission since a June failure in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Dec. 20, 2015.

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