SpaceX just stuck an even tougher landing

SpaceX has been setting the bar high for private spaceflight companies, and on Thursday night it raised it even higher. 

For the second time, the company has successfully landed its rocket on a droneship in the ocean, an achievement that surprised even the company's CEO, Elon Musk, who had given it a 50-50 chance of failing. Check it out:

At 1:21 a.m. ET, a Falcon 9 rocket launched out of SpaceX's launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying with it the Japanese telecommunications satellite JCSAT-14.

Because of the extremely high orbit the rocket was launching to this time around, SpaceX didn't anticipate a safe landing for the rocket. The spacecraft was traveling at twice the speed of the Falcon 9 that SpaceX landed on April 8, when the company made history by sticking the landing on a ship in the middle of the ocean.

Here's Musk's anticipatory tweet:

And here's the rocket launching:

This was the company's fourth launch this year, and right now its track record for successful launches and payload deployment is 4-for-4.

SpaceX's main mission was to transport the JCSAT-14 satellite into orbit about 25,000 miles above sea level. The satellite joined the satellite operator Sky Perfect JSAT's existing fleet of satellites and deliver high-definition TV and emergency communications services to folks in the Asia-Pacific region.

Here's a shot of rocket's path as it launches from Earth:

This is the third time that SpaceX successfully landed one of its rockets and the second time it landed successfully on its ocean platform. Musk couldn't contain his excitement on Twitter.

It's a huge step toward SpaceX's goal of dramatically lowering the cost of spaceflight with reusable rockets. The company has showed once again that it can make this amazing technology work.

Watch the rocket launch and landing below:

SEE ALSO: SpaceX just released incredible new photos of its historic rocket landing

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