Tonight, SpaceX successfully sent a first-stage booster to space, and then landed it vertically minutes later. It’s a proof of concept that is supposed to make space cheaper by reusing components, but this booster is destined to never fly again.
On a press call earlier tonight, Musk said “I think we’ll probably keep this one on the ground, just [because] it’s kind of unique, it’s the first one we’ve brought back.”
Advertisement
This isn’t quite the end of the road for Falcon 9, though—after transport back to SpaceX’s pad at Canaveral, it will be tied down with suitably giant chains and fired on land to verify that everything would work, if it needed to.