Reused rocket back in port after satellite launch by SpaceX
by Marcia Dunn
A SpaceX rocket booster is hoisted off a barge after it arrived to Port Canaveral earlier in the morning on Tuesday, April 4, 2017. This first stage rocket booster had been used in a prior mission and was launched again from Kennedy Space Center on March 30, 2017. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)
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A SpaceX rocket booster is hoisted off a barge after it arrived to Port Canaveral earlier in the morning on Tuesday, April 4, 2017. This first stage rocket booster had been used in a prior mission and was launched again from Kennedy Space Center on March 30, 2017. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)
SpaceX's first reused rocket is back in port, five days after launching a satellite.
The singed 15-story booster returned atop a barge to Florida's Port Canaveral on Tuesday.
It was the second flight for the Falcon 9's first-stage core—and a first for SpaceX. Both times, the leftover booster landed upright on an ocean platform following liftoff.
SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk has championed recycling rockets since his company's founding 15 years ago, to save time and money. Usually, they're discarded into the ocean after launch.
Musk plans to retire the recycled booster and display it in Cape Canaveral.
SpaceX, meanwhile, plans to launch another satellite this month, but with a fresh booster.
The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is towed into Port Canaveral aboard the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You," before dawn Tuesday, April 4, 2017 in Port Canaveral, Fla. The booster has flown twice on Falcon 9 launches. (Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP)
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The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is towed into Port Canaveral aboard the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You," before dawn Tuesday, April 4, 2017 in Port Canaveral, Fla. The booster has flown twice on Falcon 9 launches. (Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP)
The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is towed into Port Canaveral aboard the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You," before dawn Tuesday, April 4, 2017 in Port Canaveral, Fla. The booster has flown twice on Falcon 9 launches. (Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP)
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The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is towed into Port Canaveral aboard the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You," before dawn Tuesday, April 4, 2017 in Port Canaveral, Fla. The booster has flown twice on Falcon 9 launches. (Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP)