SpaceX launches, then lands, a brand new version of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket
SpaceX just sent a rocket there and back again.
The private spaceflight company successfully launched another Falcon 9 rocket to space before landing it back on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday.
The Falcon 9 took flight at 4:14 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the Bangabandhu Satellite-1 -- a communications satellite for Bangladesh -- on its way to orbit.
About 10 minutes after launch, the first stage of the Falcon 9 came back in for a pretty landing back on Earth. This marks the 25th Falcon 9 landing for SpaceX.
It wasn't just any Falcon 9 either.
The rocket, which is part of the Falcon 9's block 5, represents the company's assumed final version of its nine-engine workhorse of a rocket.
"Falcon 9 Block 5 is designed to be capable of 10 or more flights with very limited refurbishment as SpaceX continues to strive for rapid reusability and extremely high reliability," SpaceX said in a press kit detailing the mission.
According to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, block 5 Falcon 9 rockets should be able to fly 10 or more times in a row with little to no maintenance.
Musk is so confident in the company's upgraded Falcon 9 that he's predicting that by 2019 SpaceX will be able to land a Falcon 9 booster after a launch and then launch it again 24 hours later.
SpaceX aims to reduce the cost of spaceflight through reusability.
The company's goal has long been to make rocket launches more affordable by bringing rockets back from space and then launching them again on new missions.
Musk has often said that this kind of reusability could eventually lead to a world in which those who want SpaceX to launch their wares to space will just need to pay for fuel.
With the new Falcon 9, that world is getting closer to becoming a reality.
"That would be exciting," Musk said in reference to driving down the cost of launching to space during a press call Thursday.
This type of Falcon 9 will also likely be the version of the rocket that one day flies humans to orbit for NASA under a contract with SpaceX.
Once the block 5 Falcon 9 is certified after a rigorous series of tests and requirements, the company will be able to fly people to the International Space Station and other destinations sometime in the next few years.
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
