On Monday, Elon Musk's SpaceX had the biggest rocket launch and landing in history. After shooting one of its Falcon 9 rockets into space, SpaceX then turned part of the rocket, called the first stage, around for an epic landing at its Landing Zone 1.
The big idea behind it is to spawn a fleet of reusable rockets that can launch, land, refuel, and relaunch within a few hours. So you might think that SpaceX's next step would be to relaunch this 14-story rocket to prove its reuse capabilities, but that won't be happening.
During a teleconference on Monday after the mission, Musk said that SpaceX will not refly the retrieved rocket stage, shown here:
Instead, the company plans to conduct a ground test similar to the static-fire tests that are part of prelaunch preparations, which measure the rocket's structural integrity, system operations, and engine power.
But Musk said during the teleconference that SpaceX expects "sometime next year we ought to aim to re-fly one of the rocket boosters," The Boston Globe's Justin Bachman reported.
That means we can look forward to more rocket landings like the one on Monday, but it's going to be awhile before we see the rapidly reusable rockets Musk envisions.
"It'll take a few years to iron all that out and make sure it all works well," Musk said.
In the meantime, sit tight: We're watching a spaceflight revolution in the making.
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