After a very, very long delay, SpaceX finally launched its Falcon 9 rocket Friday evening. The launch comes six months after its original date, and carried the SES-9 communications satellite for Luxembourg-based SES. The satellite is headed for geostationary orbit, where it will provide communications services to large parts of Asia and the Indian Ocean. The delay had originally been attributed to redesigning going on after a June failure when a rocket exploded on the launchpad. But continued delays did arouse some curiosity after this version of the Falcon 9, the Falcon 9 v1.2 or Falcon 9 Upgrade, has been proven to work during the successful December launch of Orbcomm satellites. It may have had more to do with the new flight pattern, which will take the satellite into orbit much more quickly by having the first-stage rocket take the satellite higher than originally planned, closer to the 22,000 miles above the equator it is aiming for.
As expected, the attempt to land the first-stage rocket in one piece on a drone ship at sea didn't work. It takes less fuel, but SpaceX has yet to succeed in that goal yet. Only on land has one of its rockets landed softly enough to be reused.
Rocket landed hard on the droneship. Didn't expect this one to work (v hot reentry), but next flight has a good chance.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 5, 2016
Check out the video of the launch below.
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