SpaceX blasted off a recycled rocket for the first time on Thursday, using a booster that had previously flown cargo to the astronauts living at the International Space Station. The rocket rose into the sky over Cape Canaveral, Florida at 6:27 pm (2227 GMT), on a mission to send a communications satellite for Luxembourg-based company SES into a distant orbit. "No one has ever done this before," said SpaceX chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell in a video statement released ahead of the launch. "This is a historic event."
The white Falcon 9 rocket contained a tall and slightly scuffed, columnar portion known as the first stage, or booster, which propelled the unmanned Dragon cargo ship to space in April 2016, then returned to an upright landing on an ocean platform.