Elon Musk's SpaceX starts off its week with an impressive rocket launch and landing
SpaceX has done it again.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying an uncrewed Dragon capsule loaded with supplies for astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) took off from Cape Canaveral at 12:31 p.m. ET on Monday.
But that's not all.
About 10 minutes after launch, the first stage of the rocket made its reappearance back on solid ground in Florida, completing the company's 14th successful landing and bringing them yet another step closer toward creating a fleet of reusable rockets.
The Falcon 9 landing marks the 6th time the company has landed a booster back on solid ground. The other landings have taken place on drone ships at sea.
Before coming back in for its landing, the first stage booster send the Dragon on its way to the Space Station for NASA.
If all goes according to plan, the Dragon should make its way to the Space Station in about two days.
This marks the 12th official cargo run for SpaceX, which launched its first Dragon to the station in 2012, making history as the first privately-built spacecraft to dock with the orbiting space laboratory.
The Elon Musk-founded company is under contract to launch up to 20 Dragon missions to the station for NASA.
SpaceX is also extending its reach to the station with NASA's commercial crew program. The company is planning to start launching NASA astronauts to the station sometime in the next year under a contract with the agency.
Musk's company has been having a pretty stellar year so far.
The Falcon 9 launch Monday marks SpaceX's 11th launch of the year, a record number for the company.
SpaceX is also rebounding from a rough 2016 after a rocket explosion during a routine pre-launch test forced the company to stand down from launching for months.
Today, SpaceX appears to be getting its swagger back, launching regularly and clearing mission after mission from its manifest.
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.
