Space X rocket in historic vertical landing!

US company SpaceX has successfully landed an unmanned rocket upright, after sending 11 satellites into orbit.

The Falcon-9 craft touched down late on Monday night, about 10km from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

It is not the first spacecraft to land a booster vertically; that feat was claimed by the much smaller New Shepard rocket in Texas last month.

Nonetheless the Falcon-9 flight, which also went twice as high as New Shepard, is a milestone towards reusing rockets.

SpaceX aims to slash the cost of private space operations with such reusable components - but the company has not launched a rocket since one exploded in June.

On that occasion an unmanned Falcon-9 broke apart in flames minutes after lifting off from Cape Canaveral, with debris tumbling out of the sky into the Atlantic Ocean.

The rocket, which had 18 straight successes prior to the fateful flight, was in the process of sending a cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS).

SpaceX has a $1.6bn (£1.08bn; €1.47bn) contract with Nasa to send supplies to the ISS.






http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35157782