SpaceX's Falcon 9 successfully blasts off this Tuesday morning
FILE PHOTO from May 22nd -- Photo by Roberto Gonzalez/Getty Images
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (FOX 35 WOFL) - SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket took off beautifully this Tuesday morning, blasting off in the 1 a.m. hour.
The SpaceX rocket lifted off on time at 1:18 a.m. Just minutes later, the Falcon 9 booster came down from space, making a perfect landing on the SpaceX docking station in the Atlantic Ocean. See the launch below.
Falcon 9, standing at 230-feet tall, took off with an Indonesian Communications Satellite.
The reason this rocket is making history is because the Falcon 9 rockets are normally retired after two launches, but SpaceX plans to send it into space for a third time by the end of this year, with a long term goal of reusing the rocket 10 or more times.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk says that reusing rockets is supposed to make space travel more economical, with the goal of one day transporting humans to Mars.
Most recently, NASA named the first nine astronauts to fly commercially on private spaceflight companies like SpaceX and Boeing. This would mark the first time astronauts take flight from the Space Coast in more than seven years.
Another rocket launch is scheduled for this Saturday at 3:48 a.m. That mission will send the Parker Solar Probe to the sun in order to increase understanding of Earth's closest star.