SpaceX launches its first recycled rocket in historic leap

SpaceX successfully launched and then retrieved its first recycled rocket Thursday, the biggest leap yet in its bid to drive down costs and speed up flights.

The Falcon 9 blasted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre, hoisting a broadcasting satellite into the clear early evening sky on the historic rocket reflight.

It was the first time SpaceX founder Elon Musk tried to fly a booster that soared before on an orbital mission. He was at a loss for words after the booster landed on the bull’s-eye of the ocean platform following liftoff, just off the east Florida coast.

Musk called it an “incredible milestone in the history of space” after the booster touchdown.

He added: “This is going to be a huge revolution in spaceflight.”

This particular first stage landed on an ocean platform almost exactly a year ago after a space station launch for Nasa. SpaceX refurbished and tested the five-metre-long booster, still sporting its nine original engines. It nailed another vertical landing at sea Thursday once it was finished boosting the satellite for the SES company of Luxembourg. SpaceX employees jammed outside Mission Control at the Hawthorne, California, company headquarters cheered loudly every step of the way — and again when the satellite reached its proper orbit.

Longtime customer SES got a discount for agreeing to use a salvaged rocket, but wouldn’t say how much. It’s not just about the savings, said chief technology officer Martin Halliwell.