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 The successful mission, capped by delivery of all 11 satellites to
orbit for launch customer ORBCOMM Inc <ORBC.O>, unfolded in just
over 30 minutes and marked a pivotal reversal of fortunes for
privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, founded
by high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.
It was the first flight for his California-based company since a
rocket failure in June that destroyed a cargo ship being carried on
a resupply mission bound for the International Space Station.
The upgraded, 23-story-tall Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:29 p.m. EST/0129 GMT, with the
nine-engine suborbital main stage returning 10 minutes later to a
landing site about 6 miles south of its launch pad. The upper-stage
booster continued its ascent to Earth orbit with its payload.
Musk has said the ability to return his rockets to Earth so they can
be refurbished and reflown would slash his company's operational
costs in the burgeoning and highly competitive private space launch
industry.
 SpaceX employees erupted in jubilation as they watched live video
footage of the 156-foot-tall 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.
"Welcome back, baby!" Musk wrote in a celebratory Twitter message he
posted.
Rival company Blue Origin, a space startup founded by Amazon.com
<AMZN.O> Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, nailed a similar return rocket
landing test last month. In a seemingly back-handed compliment to
SpaceX, Bezos tweeted a message of congratulations to Musk's
company, saying: "Welcome to the club!"
But the SpaceX feat, which the company had characterized before
launch as a "secondary test objective," was achieved during an
actual commercial mission.
Minutes after blast-off, the Falcon 9's first-stage rocket separated
from its upper-stage booster, which continued on into orbit to
release ORBCOMM's satellites about 500 miles (800 km) above the
Earth.
Monday's deployment completed a $200 million 17-satellite network
that will provide machine-to-machine messaging services on the
ground - such as between retailers and shipping containers.
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After separation from its upper stage, the Falcon rocket's main
stage turned around and fired a series of engine burns as the
vehicle flew back to Earth, unfurled its landing legs and settled
gently onto a newly revamped landing pad occupying a decommissioned
missile site.
SpaceX, which has more than 60 launch missions pending collectively
worth about $8 billion, previously experimented unsuccessfully with
attempts to land its rockets on a platform in the ocean.
The Hawthorne, California-based company was founded in 2002 by Musk,
who also serves as chief executive of Tesla Motors Inc <TSLA.O>, the
electric car maker.
Before Monday, SpaceX had been grounded since June 28, when a Falcon
9 rocket exploded shortly after launch during a space station cargo
run for NASA.
Investigators traced the problem to a faulty support beam that held
a bottle of helium inside the rocket's upper-stage liquid oxygen
tank. When the strut broke, helium flooded into the tank, causing it
to over-pressurize and then explode.
SpaceX switched to a new supplier for the steel struts and upgraded
its testing program, Musk later told reporters. The Falcon rocket
launched on Monday also included a more powerful first-stage engine
and a beefed-up landing system.
(Reporting by Joe Skipper at Cape Canaveral; Additional reporting by
Irene Klotz from Cape Canaveral and Philadelphia; Additional
reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by
Mary Milliken)
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