Why SpaceX Landing An Unmanned Rocket Was A Damn Historic Flight

SpaceX just passed a milestone for human beings going and forth to the stars. "But I don't have thousands of dollars to go to space..." you may be thinking. 

Well, you better shut your mouth because the return of this rocket will cut the bill. Here's why.

On Monday night, the Falcon-9 rocket blasted off its launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida and flew 125 miles into the air. During the flight, it propelled a small section of the rocket — stuffed with 11 communications satellites — into freakin' space. At that point, the spacecraft's booster engines turned on and started sending the 23-story rocket back to Earth. 

The whole thing took some ten minutes. And now we're one step closer to schmucks like you and me going to space.

Because this happened. SpaceX successfullylanded the rocket upright.

This is the first time a rocket of this size landed back on Earth upright

It was flawless. 

This is the first time an orbital rocket successfully landed back on Earth, according to SpaceX commentators. SpaceX employees screamed with joy as they watched their unmanned rocket touch down. It's actually been six months since SpaceX has sent any rocket into orbit. 

Because the last one they sent blew up. So that's why this launch and return is significant for two reasons.

First, replace those 11 satellites with people

Through his company, billionaire and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk wants to slash the cost of private trips to space. Figuring out how to reuse and relaunch rockets does just that.

Just think: substitute those 11 satellites into space with human beings into space. The whole flight took ten minutes and the rocket was able to come back down to Earth. Consistently repeating what SpaceX did with humans would change the world — this is no exaggeration.

After three previous attempts earlier this year, this was SpaceX's first time successfully recycling of a rocket.

At the top of this flight, the rocket pushed out 11 satellites into orbit 

Second, SpaceX has learned from their last rocket exploding in June

Back in June, an identical Falcon-9 rocket to the one that touched down on Monday exploded in midair minutes after takeoff. The rocket had actually had 18 prior successes before the fateful flight that was supposed to send cargo to the International Space Station. 

The company has spent months fixing what caused June's explosion. NASA actually has a $1.6 billion contract with SpaceX, who's been delivering payloads into space for more than six years. 

A rocket returning back to Earth was actually done four weeks ago by one of SpaceX's competitors, Blue Origin. But they sent a smaller, less powerful rocket and it went half as far as SpaceX's rocket did.

This is what the rocket looks like

Main image via Inquirer | Associated Press

Collage image via BBC News | Associated Press

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