SpaceX lands a rocket

If it’s all the same to you, I’m just going to keep watching this for a few hours.

Space and technology can still provide a few “gee whiz” moments and SpaceX‘s effort to create a reusable rocket finally paid off last evening when the Falcon 9 rocket landed perfectly upright, ending a short string of spectacular disasters in previous attempts.

Here’s the full launch webcast.

The first stage propelled a payload of 11 satellites to 62 miles above Earth before the second stage took over.

It’s not the first time a reusable rocket has landed upright; Jeff Bezos’ company pulled that off a month or so ago. But that was a suborbital flight. Last evening’s was a full expedition to space.

Elon Musk, the money behind SpaceX, had assumed the rocket exploded when he ran outside to watch, but it was a sonic boom.