On Monday, SpaceX made history after it landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket back at Cape Canaveral.
The private space enterprise, headed by entrepreneur Elon Musk, has been trying to build a reusable rocket in an effort to cut space travel costs.
The Falcon 9 launches like any other rocket. Once it leaves Earth’s atmosphere, the first stage separates after its nine rockets burn for around 162 seconds with 1.5 million pounds of thrust.
Once the engines cutoff the rocket conducts its flip manoeuvre. The boostback engines fire in order to put it on a trajectory to the landing site. The rocket then re-enters the atmosphere and the goes through an entry burn.
The grid fins, located near the top of the rocket help steer it. As it nears the landing site, engineers light the engines once more to help guide it, while the landing legs are deployed. And if all goes well, as it did on Monday, the rocket lands softly and safely back on terra firma.
Though many may argue this has been done before – when Blue Origin landed its rocket on Nov. 25 – they are two separate beasts.
READ MORE: Did Blue Origin beat SpaceX in landing a reusable rocket?
Blue Origin’s rocket was suborbital, while the Falcon 9 was an orbital launch, making the flight not only higher in altitude but also much faster.
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