As part of his "rocket reusability" ethos, Elon Musk had hoped to use a giant net on a boat to catch the rocket's protective covering. It turns out it's hard to catch stuff falling from space.
Musk's successful rocket launch is a step on the ambitious road to Mars; as with our adventurous ancestors, where we might go seems to be limited only by our imagination, says Marcelo Gleiser.
The private space company has launched the Falcon Heavy, a rocket more powerful than any other in use today. It's now bearing a roadster into an elliptical Earth-Mars orbit. Watch the rocket's flight.
The multi-billion dollar satellite, launched by SpaceX, was initially thought to have made a successful low-Earth orbit, but there have been several unconfirmed reports since indicating it is lost.
The rocket carrying 10 satellites into low-earth orbit sparked alarm among some fearing a UFO. The Los Angeles Fire Department was prompted to release a statement about the "mysterious light."
Thursday the private company SpaceX plans on launching a satellite using a rocket that it has launched once before. Reusing equipment could make it cheaper to do business in deep space.
NASA had originally planned for the Dragon craft to reach the space station three days ago. It's carrying crew supplies and a range of scientific experiments.
The private spaceflight company launched its Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, only to have the rocket's cargo capsule encounter an error in its navigation system on Wednesday during a docking attempt.
SpaceX scrubbed a launch attempt Saturday at NASA's Launch Complex 39A, site of the shuttle program and the mission that first sent humans to the moon. Their second try succeeded Sunday.