SpaceX makes historic landing

Cape Canaveral, Florida: Today in space history, a rocket went to space. No big. But then it came back down and landed on a drone barge in the middle of the ocean. The epic rocket landing of SpaceX late on Friday is a big step forward in humanity's march out into the cosmos, company founder and CEO Elon Musk said.

SpaceX managed to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a robotic "drone ship" in the Atlantic Ocean during the successful launch of the company's uncrewed Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station this afternoon.

The first-of-its-kind touchdown is an important milestone in SpaceX's quest to develop completely reusable rockets, which Musk has said could revolutionize spaceflight by reducing launch costs by a factor of 100. "I think it's another step toward the stars," Musk said during a post-launch press briefing. "In order for us to really open up access to space, we've got to achieve full and rapid reusability.

And to be able to do that for the primary rocket booster is going to have a huge impact on cost." Friday's touchdown was the first successful drone-ship landing after four near-misses; similar attempts in January 2015, April 2015, January 2016 and March 2016 ended with the rocket hitting the drone ship but then toppling over and exploding on its deck.

"The rocket landed instead of putting a hole in the ship or tipping over, so we're really excited about that," Musk said. On its own, the retropropulsion landing is a major technological accomplishment. But it means even more as a step toward reliably getting humans off of Earth—maybe even permanently. “In order for us to really open up access to space,” Musk said, “We need to achieve full and rapid reusability.”