SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket

While SpaceX’s famous founder Elon Musk is typically the focus of conversations surrounding the company, many more men and women are involved with the company’s endeavors.

Livestreams from SpaceX’s headquarters showed employees breaking into cheers as the rocket touched down at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Watch the replay of the launch and landing at www.spacex.com and read Elon Musk’s background and thoughts on the mission.

For the first time anywhere, a rocket was launched, but then returned and landed vertically on the pad.

SpaceX had not previously attempted to land a rocket on land, and it marked the firm’s first successful attempt to recover a rocket from an orbital flight.

Creating a reusable rocket has been a major goal for SpaceX, and one it’s struggled with. The SpaceX launch and landing this week was a much trickier accomplishment, and marks the first time a rocket has been safely landed after delivering a payload into orbit.

SpaceX hopes it can recycle the first stage and use it again on future space flights. The latest mission was capped by delivery of all 11 satellites to orbit for customer Orbcomm.

The Falcon 9 rocket had exploded shortly after liftoff in June, while carrying supplies to the International Space Station. Welcome to the club! “It’s a revolutionary moment”, Musk told the press after the landing.

OrbComm chief executive officer Marc Eisenberg seemed just as excited about the booster landing as his satellites reaching orbit. Previous attempts were close, but ended in failure. “The Falcon first stage landing is confirmed”, SpaceX wrote on Twitter. But the rocket will be fired up and tested on the ground to ensure that it technically would work in the event of a second launch. That rocket, though, had been used for a suborbital flight. The rocket made it to the drone ship, but landed hard. The devices completed a 17-satellite, low-orbiting constellation that will help facilitate communications for the Internet of Things devices.