SpaceX successfully launched and landed a Falcon 9 rocket early Friday morning, another historic feat for the commercial company.

  • SpaceX successfully launches Falcon 9 early Friday
  • Rocket sent communications satellite into orbit for Japanese compay
  • SpaceX successfully landed 1st stage rocket booster for 2nd time

The Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1:21 a.m.

Those who stayed up overnight said seeing the launch was worth staying up late for.

“You see it first, and then you can feel the vibrations, and then you hear the sound, and so it’s quite spectacular,” said Ed Tronolone, who was visiting from Jupiter.

The rocket delivered a satellite to orbit for a Japanese television and communications company called SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation.

The JCSAT-14 satellite will hover more than 22,000 miles above Earth in geostationary orbit, delivering broadcast, data and internet service to Japan and beyond.

While the rocket was on its way to orbit, hundreds of miles off Florida’s east coast, the rocket’s first-stage booster successfully landed on a remote controlled barge. It was the second successful landing at sea for SpaceX, following last month’s historic first landing on a ship.

The noise from the workers at SpaceX's mission control center in California went from worry to cheers.

"What's the cost savings in refurbishing and reusing the vehicle, and can they reuse it safely?" said Space Florida's Dale Ketcham, who added that now that SpaceX is landing the rockets, they'll be able to crunch numbers to see if the attempts are justified.

"It's going to make it cheaper, more reliable, predictable," he said. "We will have more vehicles flying, which is fire and smoke here on the Space Coast. We like that."

The booster will be brought back to Port Canaveral to undergo tests and will eventually be launched again.

“May need to increase size of rocket storage hangar,” SpaceX Founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted Friday morning.

Musk says the goal is to reuse rockets to drive down the cost of launches.

SpaceX is hoping to ramp up the number of launches. By the end of the year, they want to be able to launch every two to three weeks.

Another communications satellite, this time for Thailand, was just delivered to the Cape and is scheduled to launch on a Falcon 9 at the end of the month.


SpaceX successfully launch a JCSAT-14 communications satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday, May 5, 2016. (SpaceX)