On Tuesday, April 14, the commercial spaceflight company SpaceX attempted what would have been a game-changing feat when it tried to land a rocket on a robotic platform in the Atlantic Ocean.
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The idea is to create reusable rockets that detach from their payloads and fly back to Earth. Spaceflight companies could launch the same rocket over and over and dramatically reduce the cost of launches.
The technology is still in the works, and this landing attempt didn't quite go as planned.
The rocket came in almost perfectly vertical, but as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk put it:
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2015
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