Falcon 9 first stage landing at KSC (landed stage to be test fired)

[Dr Mordrid]

100% successful ORBCOMM launch, then they STUCK IT!!

[Dr Mordrid]

Full webcast

[Dr Mordrid]

Landed stage pic

[Dr Mordrid]

Short video from the landing pad (Musk's Twitter)

http://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/679145544673923072

And a clear still

[Dr Mordrid]

On the money, indeed!!

The sky lit up, the sonic boom hit and there it was....

[Dr Mordrid]

Actually, from a drone cam

[SitFlyer]

Such an EPIC event in history this is and shall be.

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup, and everyone's dying to see it in daylight. The space media is going haywire.

[cjolley]

W007!

[Jammrock]

Congrats to SpaceX!

[Umfriend]

Is it safe to say that it is eaier to land on land than on ship?

[Dr Mordrid]

There were steely-eyed rocket men & women, many dating back to Apollo and from foreign programs, who posted to NSF that they were both cheering out loud and in tears last night. I hear the ESA crew down in Kourou were warching and cheering up a storm when F9 FT landed.

Next up: SES-9 at KSC, and ESA's Jason 3 at Vandenberg in January. The SES-9 bird may be the first to be reflow later in the year. Jason 3 will be the last v1.1 core.

[Dr Mordrid]

Is it safe to say that it is eaier to land on land than on ship?

Of course. No sea state to worry about, hauling it back to port etc., but the ASDS's will still be used for launches with low margins.

On land everything is stable, the refurb facility is a mile down the road, and you have multiple landing pads for when you have three Falcon Heavy cores coming back - the first two simultaneously. That'll be one helluva sight.

The landed core is heading for checkouts, then LC-39A to test that new pads GSE, and they'll do a wet dress rehersal and static fire to confirm it would be relaunchable. Then it goes home to California to be a museum piece.

[Fat Tone]

This is all fantastic stuff.

Any news on what looked like a long crack near one of the leg mounts in the short video Musk tweeted?

[Dr Mordrid]

There were some cables and seams on one leg that some misinterpreted as cracks in its (easily/cheaply replaceable) thermal protection coating.

Otherwise, all reports are the stage is in very good shape and will head to LC-39A soon for tests.

After the Jason 3 launch from Vandenberg January 17th they'll launch the big SES-9 commsat from KSC's LC-40 later in January. If it lands intact, this will likely be the first reflown core later in 2016 - another SES bird. Then comes Dragon CRS-8