SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage has landed at LZ-1 [video]

I see a lot of comments about how boring this is becoming. It caused a bit of excitement for me, though.<p>The launch and landing happened around 7 am local time, and my house is only a few miles from the landing zone. So, I&#x27;m taking my morning shower, and I hear the boom. I&#x27;m thinking &quot;Sounds like a SpaceX landing or a rapid unplanned disassembly&quot;. Then my houseguest from out-of-town yells into the bathroom: &quot;David, I think something just hit the house!&quot;.<p>Me: &quot;No, hun, that&#x27;s what a rocket landing sounds like. Go check the internet, I&#x27;m pretty sure we&#x27;re okay.&quot;<p>Best of luck to SpaceX, and thank you for not launching (and landing) any earlier in the morning!

Good business: make the hard seem easy and the nigh on impossible seem merely hard. They do these landings so well now it almost seems normal that rockets land after taking off and boosting a second stage to orbital velocity.

NROL-76&#x27;s mission patch[0] seems rather mundane. NRO patches are normally a bit more cryptic and bizzare.<p>I wonder how many people at SpaceX are cleared to know what the payload is. What are the finer points of payload integration in such a situation?<p>Does Elon even know what his own company just launched?<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_NRO_launches#&#x2F;media&#x2F;File%3ANROL-76_mission_patch.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_NRO_launches#&#x2F;media&#x2F;...</a>

Watch the whole stream, it was beautiful. There was a view from ground all the way from separation to landing.

This is the first time, I think, we got to see the charred surface of the first stage. I wonder what kind of processing is involved to make the stage usable again?<p>Do they just put it through a car wash and re-fill for next time?<p>Is everything reusable on the first stage?

The booster footage was amazing. Incredible to see just how much it flies through its own exhaust on the re-entry burn!

What is truly amazing is that this is becoming normal.

That never gets old :-) and I thought the external views were really awesome as well. On the previous return of SES-10 which was a geosync mission, previously SpaceX had said that the booster was unrecoverable in those situations given the additional boost that it gave the payload (so started from a higher altitude) but they tried it, and got it back anyway. Watching the grid fins nearly burn off from re-entry friction was a the most interesting bit of that one.

I do like how these landings are becoming more routine. They&#x27;re making it seem like a piece of cake now. I don&#x27;t think I&#x27;ll get as excited again until the Falcon Heavy maiden launch.

Is it just me or is this first time they&#x27;ve caught video of stage separation from the ground?<p>Beautiful video in any case. It&#x27;s fun to see the first stage engine cut off, separate, flip over, and the second stage accelerates away.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;EzQpkQ1etdA?t=857" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;EzQpkQ1etdA?t=857</a>

Didn&#x27;t they say it was classified? I think just before the separation of the rocket and payload, they said something about what it was.<p>13:38 in the video &quot;Falcon X is delivering the, National Reconnaissance office&#x27;s satellite to orbit right now&quot;

Another great achievement. I am OK with this becoming a regular boring affair.

Wow! What amazing work being done by SpaceX.

What was the payload?

Amazing video from the ground this time. Link to the webcast at the time of separation. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;EzQpkQ1etdA?t=1211" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;EzQpkQ1etdA?t=1211</a>

You almost forget that it was an NRO spy sat payload.