The mission was titled NROL-108, with the Falcon 9 rocket carrying a confidential satellite into orbit.
Shortly after lift off, the booster on board of the rocket separated once it reached near orbit, with the satellite now continuing on to its destination.
However, the Falcon 9 descended back to Earth, with an ultra-smooth landing seen back at a pad in Florida.
SpaceX launch goes off seamlessly as rocket lands in stunningly smooth fashion - watch (Image: SPACEX)
POV from the Falcon 9 as it lowered towards the ground (Image: SPACEX)
One person wrote on Twitter: Falcon lands, crowds cheer, SpaceX launches their final mission of the year.
European Spaceport Operations Analysis
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Although at present the term spaceport may sound unusual to the common ear, in a few years it may become as ordinary a term as an airport. Whilst the linguistic definition of a spaceport means a door to space, from an economic perspective it is a means of development.
A recent increase in space transportation in the United States is mainly due to private businesses entering the fray. According to the FAA, at present 9 private US companies operate holding 26 active commercial licenses granted by the US Office of Commercial Space Transportation, their commercial space transportation activities are supported by 11 commercial domestic launch sites (aka spaceports) and one foreign site.
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MOJAVE, Calif.–The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation has awarded Virgin Galactic an operating license for SpaceShipTwo.
The license award comes as the new vehicle, VSS Unity, begins to stretch its legs with the first tests conducted out of the hangar.
Unity conducted the first taxi test Aug. 1 to evaluate and calibrate the navigation and communications/telemetry systems. Unity was pulled by a Range Rover Autobiography provided by Virgin Galactic’s automotive partner Land Rover, the same vehicle that will be used to tow Unity off the runway after flight tests.
The license award, which will ultimately permit commercial operations of the vehicle, was the culmination of several years of in-depth interaction with the FAA. The license review process consists of an in-depth review of the vehicle’s system design, safety analysis and flight trajectory analysis, culminating in FAA-AST approval.
ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.
Although at present the term “spaceport” may sound unusual to the common ear, in a few years it may become as ordinary a term as an airport. Whilst the linguistic definition of a spaceport means a door to space, from an economic perspective it is a means of development.
A recent increase in space transportation in the United States is mainly due to private businesses entering the fray. According to the FAA, at present 9 private US companies operate holding 26 active commercial licenses granted by the US Office of Commercial Space Transportation, their commercial space transportation activities are supported by 11 commercial domestic launch sites (aka spaceports) and one foreign site.
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