SpaceX lands rocket upright

The December 21 mission was the first attempt to land a first stage rocket on land after previous unsuccessful attempts to land on floating landing pads in the ocean.

The upgraded, 23-story-tall Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, with the nine-engine suborbital main stage returning 10 minutes later to a landing site about 10 kilometers south of its launchpad. The first stage rockets involved in propulsion of the Falcon 9 into orbit were safely returned to the launch pad vertically using propulsion, meaning that they can be reused.

Rival company , a space start-up founded by Amazon.com chief executive Jeff Bezos, nailed a similar return rocket landing test last month.

SpaceX aims to slash the cost of private space operations with such reusable components - but the company has not launched a rocket since one exploded in June.

Nonetheless the Falcon-9 flight, which also went twice as high as New Shepard, is a milestone towards reusing rockets.

SpaceX's rocket deployed 11 satellites for telecommunications company ORBCOMM of Fort Lee, N.J. after lifting off from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

SpaceX employees erupted in jubilation as they watched live video footage of the white first-stage booster slowly descending upright through a damp, darkened night sky amid a glowing orange ball of light to make a picture-perfect landing.

It is, no doubt, a big win for CEO Musk and SpaceX, but it's not the first time when a rocket has landed successfully on earth after launching into space.

"Welcome back, baby!" Mr Musk wrote in a celebratory Twitter message he posted. The rocket landed successfully in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The company, headed by Internet tycoon Elon Musk, is striving to revolutionise the rocket industry, which now loses many millions of dollars in jettisoned machinery and sophisticated rocket components after each launch.