1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

Watch this dramatic SpaceX footage of a rocket landing through dark clouds

By

There was a time when everyone chuckled at Elon Musk’s “ridiculous” idea to land a first-stage rocket booster upright shortly after launch so that it could be used again.

But in recent years, SpaceX — the spaceflight company that Musk founded in 2002 — has nailed the process, landing Falcon 9 boosters numerous times and with astonishing accuracy as part of its plan to create a re-usable system to dramatically cut the cost of space missions.

Recommended Videos

And it’s hard to get tired of the incredible sight of a booster the size of a 15-story building coming in to land on a droneship bobbing up and down in the ocean.

SpaceX’s latest launch — its 23rd re-supply mission to the International Space Station — took place on Sunday, August 29. On Wednesday, the company posted a tweet showing yet another impressive landing, this one featuring footage from a camera attached to the booster.

It’s a pretty remarkable sight as the booster descends through dark clouds, its thrusters firing to slow it down as it approaches the droneship for another gentle touchdown.

Landing in the dark through clouds pic.twitter.com/kRaAhgcWjf

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 1, 2021

The landing was also notable as it marked the first use of SpaceX’s new droneship, called A Shortfall of Gravitas.

For another unique view of a Falcon 9 booster coming in to land, check out this video.

SpaceX’s first successful landing of a Falcon 9 booster took place in 2015. It’s actually suffered relatively few mishaps during the process, with just nine out of 92 landing attempts ending in failure.

SpaceX’s engineering team is now focused on perfecting the landing of its next-generation Starship spacecraft. After several failed attempts to land it following short high-altitude test flights earlier this year, the company managed to achieve a perfect landing in May. Next, SpaceX will send Starship on its first orbital test flight, with its almighty Super Heavy rocket carrying it to space.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
SpaceX already has a date in mind for next Starship launch

SpaceX launched the mighty Starship for the first time in April last year, but it took a full seven months before it became airborne again.

Following the second test flight in November, SpaceX managed to get the Starship off the launchpad again just four months later in a spectacular flight that took place last week.

Read more
Take a high-speed ride on SpaceX’s emergency escape chute

SpaceX has put a Crew Dragon on Pad 40 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first time. This means that going forward, SpaceX will have two pads to choose from when sending astronauts to space.

Up to now, crews launching on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft lift off from Pad 39A at Kennedy, but having another launch site available gives NASA and SpaceX greater flexibility when planning missions by easing pressure on teams if scheduling issues and traffic conflicts arise.

Read more
SpaceX shares awesome rocket imagery from Starship flight

SpaceX’s third Starship test flight last Thursday was its best yet, far exceeding the first two missions, which took place last year and ended in huge fireballs just a few minutes in.

This time, the Starship -- comprising the first-stage Super Heavy booster and upper-stage Starship spacecraft -- kept on flying, with both parts reaching their destination points before breaking up on descent.

Read more