SpaceX is back in business:
SpaceX returned to flight Saturday after a 4½-month hiatus. The private space exploration company headed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 9:54 a.m. PT, taking 10 satellites into space for voice and data company Iridium. It marked the company's first launch since a Falcon 9 rocket exploded at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in September.
The launch's success Saturday was made even sweeter by a smooth return landing for the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage booster. It safely returned from space and glided to a landing on a seafaring platform, known as a drone ship.
The hosted launch coverage is available on YouTube.
Also at NPR, Reuters, and NYT.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 15 2017, @05:52AM
Attention wireless listeners. Rich person does thing you will never afford. Worship him because has money.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Monday January 16 2017, @06:41PM
I was missing the launch because I had read a time in the wrong timezone (someone gave EST for a Vandenberg launch).
Then I heard it because the way it flew south over the ocean, you could hear it from pretty far inland. The amount of power is just astonishing.
Then it landed back down right where it was supposed to, while the satellites went to the right orbit. The precision is astonishing.
You can troll about Musk, but he's hired a pretty impressive engineering team.