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SpaceX conducts first re-launch of Falcon 9 rocket

The booster of a previously flown Falcon 9 carrier rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral and successfully landed on a drone ship

© SpaceX via AP

NEW YORK, March 31. /TASS/. The first stage of a previously flown Falcon 9 carrier rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral and successfully landed on the SpaceX drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, SpaceX representatives announced.

Falcon 9 and SES-10 vertical on Kennedy Space Center’s historic Pad 39A.

Публикация от SpaceX (@spacex) Мар 30 2017 в 11:21 PDT

Thursday’s mission, carrying the SES-10 telecoms satellite, took off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 18:27 local time (22:27 GMT) and successfully landed the booster again.

The mission made use of the rocket that blasted off for the first time in April 2016 to deliver the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). The rocket performed the company's first ever successful ship landing when it landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

More photos from today’s Falcon 9 launch and first stage landing → https://t.co/095WHX44BX pic.twitter.com/c3UYhMrDec
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) 31 March 2017

Thursday’s launch marks another success in the project by SpaceX to build reusable rockets that can be launched, landed and relaunched several times before they reach operational limits.

So far, SpaceX has managed to land eight Falcon 9 boosters, but no re-launches were carried out to date.

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