Watch SpaceX’s reused Falcon 9 rocket nail the landing a second time

SpaceX has posted a video of the Falcon 9 rocket it used first last year during the CRS-8 mission, and then again just last week during the SES-10 mission. The reuse of the rocket was historic in itself, but the kicker was the successful recovery of the rocket, as documented below.

During the actual launch, SpaceX tried to provide live footage of the rocket landing, but the camera on the rocket lost the feed as it returned to Earth’s atmosphere. The camera tracking the drone ship itself also cut out, because it lost the satellite uplink that was connecting it to SpaceX’s mission control. But SpaceX still captured the footage locally, and now it’s made it available for all to see.

The landing is shot from multiple angles, letting you see that flawless touchdown (with a little hop for stability’s sake) over again a couple of times. It’s still not enough to really savor the significance of the moment: This is SpaceX’s whole business model proven out, basically – provided they can decrease the turnaround time for recovering rockets and getting them back in the air.