SpaceX successfully completes its first Falcon 9 ground landing in California

Until now, all of SpaceX's ground landings have occurred out of its launch site in Cape Canaveral.

Tech2 News Staff|Oct 08, 2018, 12:03:27 IST

With the aim of delivering Argentina's SAOCOM-1A Earth-observation satellite to orbit, SpaceX attempted and also successfully completed what can be called the first-ever ground landing on the Vandenberg Air Force Base in Calfornia.The company generally uses a drone ship in the ocean as its landing site on the West Coast but was finally prepared for a ground landing after receiving a clearance to do so. As noted in a report by The Verge, until now, all of SpaceX’s ground landings have occurred out of its launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida.[caption id="attachment_5337961" align="alignnone" width="1024"]

Falcon 9 vertical on the pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Image: SpaceX[/caption]SpaceX' track record with ground landings has also been perfect so far. Of the 11 ground landing attempts by SpaceX so far (all of them at Cape Canaveral), SpaceX has managed to touch down each of those Falcon 9 rockets successfully.Elon Musk's company has been trying to do ground landings out of the Vanderberg Air Force Base for a while now and finally applied for a license over the summer. A launch site for its Titan rockets, SpaceX leased a plot of land at the Air Force Base back in 2015 to build the landing pad.

As per a report by Space.com, the 1,600 kg SAOCOM-1A satellite was developed by Argentina's national space agency, CONAE. The satellite is expected to park itself 385 miles (620 kilometers) above Earth and scrutinise the planet using a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instrument.

With its current record of attempting 18 launches last year, with this successful launch, SpaceX has already taken its tally for the year to 17. SpaceX has been aiming to hit 24 launches in 2018, however, it seems unlikely that the goal will be met.

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