SoylentNews

An Anonymous Coward writes:

SpaceX has successfully completed delivering JCSAT-14 to geosynchronous orbit. The Falcon 9 rocket launch started at 0530 UTC, with an experimental landing planned at ASDS "Of Course I Still Love You" around 600km off the coast of Florida.

While it was expected that the first stage landing attempt from Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) would be a failure*, the first stage managed to land upright, marking the second successful attempt of the private space company to land the rocket on a drone barge (the first from the CRS-8 mission last April 2016).

*Due to GTO being at a higher altitude, the rocket would have to come back at a faster speed

Landing footage [youtu.be]
Better view of the landed first stage from SpaceX [twitter.com]
Space.com submission [space.com]
Also on The Verge [theverge.com]

[note: apologies for the lack of sources, I was watching it on livestream but couldn't revive the youtube link]

Original Submission