SpaceX has managed to land Falcon Heavy’s three rocket boosters for the first time
Its successful landing of the center core from a Falcon Heavy is a relief for SpaceX after a similar attempt ended in disaster last year.
What happened: The second Falcon Heavy rocket launch took place April 11, launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Shortly after, the rocket’s three boosters touched down back on Earth. Two landed almost simultaneously back on Cape Canaveral (you can watch the video here). The third central booster, which had gone higher into orbit, landed on a ship platform in the Atlantic Ocean.
Center core: It’s the landing of this third booster that is the greatest achievement, after a similar attempt by SpaceX failed in 2018 instead hitting the ocean at 300 miles an hour.
Why it matters: It’s all about reusability, which is at the core of SpaceX’s plans to bring down the cost of space travel.
Sign up here for our daily newsletter The Download to get your dose of the latest must-read news from the world of emerging tech.
Keep Reading
Most Popular

Meta has built a massive new language AI—and it’s giving it away for free
Facebook’s parent company is inviting researchers to pore over and pick apart the flaws in its version of GPT-3

The gene-edited pig heart given to a dying patient was infected with a pig virus
The first transplant of a genetically-modified pig heart into a human may have ended prematurely because of a well-known—and avoidable—risk.

Saudi Arabia plans to spend $1 billion a year discovering treatments to slow aging
The oil kingdom fears that its population is aging at an accelerated rate and hopes to test drugs to reverse the problem. First up might be the diabetes drug metformin.

Yann LeCun has a bold new vision for the future of AI
One of the godfathers of deep learning pulls together old ideas to sketch out a fresh path for AI, but raises as many questions as he answers.
Stay connected

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.