Worlds’ 1st Recycled Booster from SpaceX Sails Serenely at Sunrise into Port Canaveral – Photo/Video Gallery

New post on Universe Today Worlds' 1st Recycled Booster from SpaceX Sails Serenely at Sunrise into Port Canaveral – Photo/Video Gallery by Ken Kremer World's first reflown rocket booster - the SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage - sails back into Port Canaveral, FL just before sunrise atop OCISLY droneship on which it landed 9 minutes after March 30, 2017 liftoff from KSC with SES-10 telecomsat - as seen entering channels mouth trailing a flock of birds from Jetty Park pier on April 4, 2017. Credit: Ken Kremer/Kenkremer.com PORT CANAVERAL/KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL - Basking in the sunrise glow, the world's first recycled booster - namely a SpaceX Falcon 9 - sailed serenely into Port Canaveral this morning, Tuesday, April 4, atop the tiny droneship on which it soft landed shortly after launching on March 30 for an unprecedented second time. Shortly before sunrise, SpaceX's recovered Falcon 9 first stage triumphantly arrived on Tuesday at the mouth of Port Canaveral and the public pier at Jetty Park around 7 am - greeted by excited onlookers, media and space buffs eager to be an eyewitness to the first rocket to launch and land two times fully intact ! The milestone SpaceX mission to refly the first ever 'used rocket' blasted off right on time at the opening of the dinnertime launch window on Thursday, March 30, at 6:27 p.m. EDT. The used two stage 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket carried the SES-10 telecommunications payload to orbit using a 'Flight-Proven' Falcon 9 rocket from seaside Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. After the 156 foot tall first stage booster completed its primary mission task, SpaceX engineers successfully guided it to a second landing on the tiny Of Course I Still Love You - OCISLY - drone ship for a soft touchdown some eight and a half minutes after liftoff. Check out this expanding gallery of eyepopping photos and videos from several space journalist colleagues and friends and myself - for views you won't see elsewhere. Click back as the arrival gallery grows ! This recycled Falcon 9 first stage booster had initially launched a year ago in April 2016 for NASA on the SpaceX Dragon CRS-8 resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) under contract for the space agency. Watch for Ken's continuing coverage direct from onsite at the Kennedy Space Center press site and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news. Ken Kremer Ken Kremer | April 5, 2017 at 12:37 am | Tags: Falcon 9 rocket, OCISLY, Of Course I Still Love You, SES-10 | URL: http://wp.me/p1CHIY-z5A Comment    See all comments Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser:  https://www.universetoday.com/134886/worlds-1st-recycled-booster-from-spacex-sails-serenely-at-sunrise-into-port-canaveral-photovideo-gallery/