CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—SpaceX successfully launched another load of station supplies for NASA late on March 6 and nailed its 50th successful rocket landing.
The Falcon rocket blasted off with 4,300 pounds of equipment and experiments for the International Space Station. Just minutes later, the spent first-stage booster made a dramatic midnight landing back at Cape Canaveral, its return accompanied by sonic booms.
“And the Falcon has landed for the 50th time in SpaceX history!” SpaceX engineer Jessica Anderson announced, amid cheers at Mission Control. “What an amazing live view all the way to touchdown.”
The Dragon capsule, meanwhile, hurtled toward a March 9 rendezvous with the space station.
It’s the 20th station delivery for SpaceX, which has launched nearly 100,000 pounds of goods to the orbiting outpost and returned nearly that much back to Earth since it began shipments in 2012. Northrop Grumman is NASA’s other commercial shipper.
SpaceX founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk said it was the windiest conditions ever—25 mph to 30 mph—for a booster landing at Cape Canaveral, but he wanted to push the envelope. The landing was the 50th successful touchdown of a SpaceX booster following liftoff, either on land or at sea.
“Envelope expanded,” Musk wrote on Twitter following touchdown.
The company’s first booster landing was in 2015, intended as a cost-saving, rocket-recycling move. Both the latest booster and Dragon capsule were recycled from previous flights.
The Dragon also contained treats for the two Americans and one Russian at the space station: grapefruit, oranges, apples, tomatoes, Skittles, Hot Tamales, and Reese’s Pieces.
The company aims to launch NASA astronauts this spring. The California-based SpaceX also is teaming up with other companies to fly tourists and private researchers to the space station, as well as high solo orbits in the next couple of years.
