Falcon-9 v1.2

Falcon-9 v1.2 launch

Falcon-9 v1.2 1e stage back to earth

Falcon-9 v1.2 1e stage landing

Description

• Liftoff occurred at 9:39 a.m. EST (1439 GMT) from pad 39A, a day after SpaceX called a last-minute abort to examine and replace a suspect actuator in the upper stage engine.
  Around two-and-a-half minutes later, the Falcon 9′s first stage engines switched off, and the second stage′s single Merlin engine ignited to propel the mission′s cargo craft payload into orbit. Cold-gas nitrogen thrusters on the first stage booster re-oriented the vehicle to fly tail first, then a subset of its main engines fired in succession three times to guide the rocket back to Earth at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral.
  The first stage′s center engine conducted the final landing burn as four legs deployed from the base of the booster for touchdown. It was the eighth time SpaceX has recovered a rocket stage, the third time the booster has returned to land at Cape Canaveral, and the first such descent over land in daylight.