SpaceX sticks another booster landing - CNET

The first stage engines shut down as expected about two and a half minutes after liftoff and the stage fell away to begin its landing try. The second stage's single engine ignited seconds after separation to continue the payload's boost to orbit.

SpaceX's most recent previous flight, a space station cargo mission to low-Earth orbit, featured a successful first-stage landing back at the Air Force Station. But the JCSAT-16 satellite launched Sunday was bound for a much higher orbit, requiring more of an initial boost from the first stage. As a result, not enough propellant was left over for a return to the launch site.

Instead, just about the time the second stage was shutting down after the first of two planned "burns," the first stage settled to the deck of SpaceX's whimsically named "Of Course I Still Love You" drone ship some 370 miles east of Cape Canaveral.

"Tonight, we're channeling our inner Simone Biles, and we're hoping to stick the landing," Kate Tice, a SpaceX engineer, said before launch, referring to the U.S. gymnastics champion whose precision dismounts helped win a gold medal at the Rio Olympics.

SpaceX's most recent previous barge landing try in June ended in failure when the rocket apparently ran out of fuel an instant before touchdown. This time around, the booster appeared to land without a hitch and video from the drone ship showed the stage parked on its four extendable legs near the center of the landing deck target.

While the first stage was flying back toward the drone ship, the second stage was wrapping up a six-minute engine firing to boost the rocket and its satellite payload into an initial orbit. About 18 minutes later, the second stage engine re-ignited for a short one-minute burn to finish the job, releasing JCSAT-16 into a highly elliptical orbit.

If all goes well, on-board thrusters will raise the low point of the orbit over the next several weeks, putting the satellite into a final circular orbit 22,300 miles above the equator where it will circle the globe in lockstep, taking 24 hours to complete one orbit.