Watch: SpaceX sticks another great landing

By Matthew Griffin Space 8th June 2017

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

SpaceX’s re-useable rockets have helped revolutionise and lower the cost of space exploration, and the Falcon 9 just stuck another landing

SpaceX, whose larger reusable Falcon Heavy rockets will one day take colonists to Mars, successfully landed a Falcon 9 rocket for the eleventh time this weekend and the company just released the footage. The short clip was shot in 4K resolution, and at 60 frames per second, so it offers a stellar view of the rocket landing right near the beach at Cape Canaveral.

SpaceX teases a photo of the Falcon Heavy, the world's most powerful rocket

The footage, apparently shot from a drone, shows the landing in great detail and you can even see the rocket kick up debris on the landing pad as it approaches the bullseye. The landing was on the money thanks, according to Elon Musk, to some clever thinking from the SpaceX team who painted the target with radio reflective paint that helped helped the rocket split the company’s trademark “X” straight down the middle.

SpaceX sticks another great landing

This was the fifth time the company landed a rocket on solid ground because most of its landings so far have been at sea where the Falcon 9 rockets land on an autonomous barge. While SpaceX is consistently able to stick those landings the early attempts at landing in the ocean were marked with explosions thanks to the sheer number of variables but recently the company has stuck every single attempt to land a rocket at Cape Canaveral, dating all the way back to December 2015, when it first landed.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.