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Today, SpaceX, the space travel company with Elon Musk at the helm, did something that’s never been done before: It successfully launched and landed a used rocket.
The Falcon 9 rocket successfully sent a satellite into space and then landed back to Earth on a drone ship that SpaceX had stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
This is the second time the Falcon 9 landed successfully on the autonomous ship, which is named, “Of Course I Still Love You.” The first time was in April 2016.
Watch the full takeoff and landing below.
The flight marks a major milestone in the history of space travel. Rockets can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build, but with the successful launch and landing of the reused Falcon 9, that could all change.
“It’s the difference between having airplanes that you threw away after every flight, verses reusing them multiple times,” said Elon Musk on SpaceX’s live video feed right after the successful landing.
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“It’s been 15 years to get to this point,” Musk continued. “I’m sort of at a loss for words. This is a great day, not just for SpaceX but for the space industry as a whole, in proving that something could be done that many people said was impossible.”
The part of the rocket that was reused was the booster, which Musk says is the most expensive part of the rocket.
Reusing rockets is core to SpaceX’s mission, which is to bring down the cost of space travel.
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
