SpaceX lands the 13th Falcon 9 rocket of the year in flames
Update 10/30, 4:18 PM ET: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully delivered Koreasat-5A to its designated orbit, marking the the company’s 16th successful mission of the year — twice the number of successful missions in 2016. Shortly after liftoff, the first stage of the rocket returned to Earth and landed (flamboyantly) in the Atlantic Ocean on one of SpaceX’s autonomous barges. (The fires eventually went out.) It was the 13th successful landing of a Falcon 9 rocket this year, the 15th in a row, and the 19th overall.
Original story: SpaceX is set to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida today. That rocket’s mission is to send a satellite known as Koreasat-5A into space, where it will hang above Earth for 15 years while providing...