Written by Staff Writer by By Mark Salling, CNN
SpaceX has pulled off an extraordinary feat: becoming the first company in history to safely return four astronauts to Earth after completing a historic trip to space.
The SpaceX mission, known as STS-135, successfully lifted off on Feb. 7 carrying two crew members and two cargo boxes carrying the International Space Station’s last supplies, departing on Feb. 24.
On Tuesday, the company’s Falcon 9 rocket launched an unmanned Dragon cargo capsule into orbit. About six minutes into the flight, the capsule deployed its parachutes and glided to a touchdown on a drone platform floating some 250 miles (400 kilometers) off Florida’s coast.
“This landing shows that the Falcon 9 is as reliable as ever,” SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter after the landing.
The capsule arrived unharmed at Cape Canaveral.
Welcome home! SpaceX lands Dragon capsule that flew to the International Space Station on Tuesday. But are astronauts and crews taking to the sky? Read CNN’s previous report. Posted by CNN Newsource on Tuesday, March 5, 2019
The end of the mission, however, was not without some drama.
Shortly after launching the capsule, SpaceX accidentally bumped the Falcon 9 into another launch vehicle, causing a small, but potentially serious, hailstorm.
SpaceX has been using the same technique for landing rocket bodies at sea, which engineers will use to save fuel while sending the Dragon capsule back to Earth. For Tuesday’s launch, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 also carried a smaller version of the mission’s cargo box for tests.
The mission is just the latest step in SpaceX’s efforts to dramatically cut the cost of space travel by reusing rocket parts, in addition to landing and operating reusable vehicles.
Musk has long said reusability will lead to cheaper space flights. Tuesday’s successful launch also marked the first time an American spacecraft flew to the International Space Station and returned to Earth.
SpaceX also successfully completed another SpaceX landing pad landing on March 12, 2017, which was the company’s first on solid ground.