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"Telsa CEO Elon Musk announced a major breakthrough in spaceflight on Friday: the successful soft landing of Falcon 9's reusable rocket booster stage in the Atlantic Ocean. \n\"I'm happy to confirm that we were able to do a soft landing in the Atlantic and all the data received back is that it made a soft landing and was in a healthy condition after that,\" Musk said.\nSee also: 6 Obscure NASA Sites Every Nerd Has to See\nThat's the good news. \nThe bad news: It landed in the middle of a strong storm and \"the boost stage was subsequently destroyed by wave action,\" Musk said. SpaceX tried to find a boat with which to recover the rocket. \"We even called the coast guard and the coast guard wasn't willing to go out.\"\nThe news comes a week after SpaceX's successful Falcon 9 rocket launch while its Dragon spacecraft remains docked with the International Space Station as it delivers cargo, supplies and Robonauts legs.\nMusk revealed the potentially \"revolutionary\" news on Friday during a hastily organized press conference at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. In a short Q&amp;A following the press conference, Musk said they have found some pieces, including one of the landing legs. He also noted that, eventually, they plan on landing the rocket back on land, where SpaceX will have a much better chance of rocket recovery.\n\"What SpaceX has done thus far is evolutionary, not revolutionary,\" Musk said. \"If we can recover the booster stage, the chance is there for revolutionary.\"\nSpaceX's next attempt for a soft landing of the rocket boosting stage will be with a upcoming commercial mission.\n\"We may have a much better probability of getting to the stage in time and recovering it,\" Musk added. \"We'll get much bigger boats next time.\"\nA booster rocket recovered from water would take two months to refurbish for reuse. If SpaceX can re-land the rocket on land (likely at a NASA space center), it can, Musk contended, be used the next day.\nMusk also revealed that SpaceX is suing the U.S. military for the right to launch military satellites. It wants to change a rule blocking private space companies such as SpaceX from competing for national security launches like sending GPS satellites into orbit.\n\"This is not SpaceX protesting and saying these launches should be awarded to us. We're saying these launches should be competed,\" said Musk, adding that it's \"in the best interest of the America public.\"\nGetting the soft-landing right\nThe question of whether or not SpaceX successfully recovered the reusable rocket on its maiden flight was tracked closely by space watchers \u2014 and especially Musk, who, in a series of tweets following the successful Falcon 9 SpaceX launch, detailed his company's efforts to retrieve the rocket: It would have plummeted back to Earth, sprouting legs and reigniting the rocket shortly before hitting the water. This operation would have preserved the rocket for reuse.\n\nOrbit insertion and Dragon deploy all good. Falcon reentry burn also good. Waiting for landing data from tracking plane.\n\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 18, 2014\n\n\nLast known state for rocket boost stage is 360 m/s, Mach 1.1, 8.5 km altitude and roll rate close to zero (v important!)\n\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 18, 2014\n\n\nData upload from tracking plane shows landing in Atlantic was good! Several boats enroute through heavy seas.\n\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2014\n\n\nFlight computers continued transmitting for 8 seconds after reaching the water. Stopped when booster went horizontal.\n\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2014\n\nMusk said SpaceX has been working for 12 years on the project, and now they finally did it: \"Now we just have to bring it back home in one piece.\"\nEarlier this week, SpaceX demonstrated the Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) rock re-entry and landing capability in a brief video shot entirely by a drone. You can see the video below.\n\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/04/25/elon-musk-spacex-booster-stage-atlantic/>