SpaceX flies Falcon 9 from Cape, lands on Atlantic ship

 James Dean, FLORIDA TODAY

SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Friday and, despite the odds, landed the first stage on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

May 6, 2016

A SpaceX hangar at Kennedy Space Center may soon feel a bit crowded with used rockets.

A third Falcon 9 booster is on its way there after sticking a landing early Friday on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, minutes after a 1:21 a.m. launch that delivered a Japanese communications satellite to orbit.

“Woohoo!!” CEO Elon Musk tweeted after the rocket's first stage touched down on a ship about 200 miles off the Florida coast. “May need to increase size of rocket storage hangar.”

The landing was SpaceX’s second at sea in less than a month, and followed a first booster landing in December on a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Last month’s feat, after several failed attempts, showed that it was possible to land on an unpiloted “drone ship” bobbing in the ocean.

But expectations Friday were low. SpaceX repeatedly said success was unlikely, while Musk offered even odds

The reason: The Falcon 9’s first stage would drop back to Earth “a lot faster and hotter than last time,” Musk said, because the mission was flying to a much higher orbit

About 10 minutes after liftoff, cameras on SpaceX’s “Of Course I Still Love You” ship showed a brilliant flash as the booster descended into the picture with several engines blazing

Employees gathered to watch the launch at SpaceX headquarters near Los Angeles groaned, thinking the flash signaled the crash that many expected

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