--- title: SpaceX Successfully Lands Rocket For Second Time description: Success for Elon Musk's “very hot and fast mission” canonical: https://time.com/4320750/spacex-falcon-9-rocket-lands-second/ author: Tara John article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-06T13:07:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:20:28.441Z article:section: Science og:title: SpaceX Successfully Lands a Rocket on a Drone Ship, Again og:description: Watch the perfect landing og:url: https://time.com/4320750/spacex-falcon-9-rocket-lands-second/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dd8223f98e757d9/6988921d196cf4789603b7f3/space-x-elon-musk-drone-rocket-landing.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: SpaceX successfully lands Falcon 9 rocket og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: SpaceX Successfully Lands a Rocket on a Drone Ship, Again twitter:description: Watch the perfect landing twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dd8223f98e757d9/6988921d196cf4789603b7f3/space-x-elon-musk-drone-rocket-landing.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # SpaceX Successfully Lands a Rocket on a Drone Ship, Again by [Tara John](https://time.com/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John May 6, 2016 1:07 PM UTC  Space X's Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with an unmanned Dragon cargo craft from the launch platform in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on April 8, 2016. Space X's Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with an unmanned Dragon cargo craft from the launch platform in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on April 8, 2016.Jim Olive—Polaris by [Tara John](https://time.com/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John May 6, 2016 1:07 PM UTC Elon Musk’s Space X l[anded its drone rocket](http://time.com/4320311/spacex-drone-rocket-landing-watch-live-stream-online/) on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean, the second successful attempt of this type in the company’s history. On Friday, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket landed off the coast of Florida on the unnamed drone ship, _Of Course I Still Love You,_ after it had transported a Japanese satellite into orbit, [reports the _Independent_](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/spacex-sea-landing-successful-video-falcon-9-elon-musk-a7016171.html). > [](https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/728456793735585793) This is the second successful sea-based landing the company has made [since this April.](http://time.com/4287548/spacex-rocket-landing-drone-ship-elon-musk/) Musk, Space X’s founder and CEO of Tesla, celebrated the landing on Twitter saying that he might have to increase the size of his rocket hangar. > [](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/728457279943495681) > [](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/728459808270000128) Musk had tweeted earlier that the landing would be difficult as the rocket would have less fuel to slow down and will be moving on a “[very hot and fast mission.](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/726214236368576512)” \[[Independent](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/spacex-sea-landing-successful-video-falcon-9-elon-musk-a7016171.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4320750/spacex-falcon-9-rocket-lands-second/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4320750/spacex-falcon-9-rocket-lands-second/"},"headline":"SpaceX Successfully Lands a Rocket on a Drone Ship, Again","datePublished":"2016-05-06T13:07:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:20:28.441Z","description":"Success for Elon Musk's “very hot and fast mission”","url":"https://time.com/4320750/spacex-falcon-9-rocket-lands-second/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dd8223f98e757d9/6988921d196cf4789603b7f3/space-x-elon-musk-drone-rocket-landing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara John","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-john/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dd8223f98e757d9/6988921d196cf4789603b7f3/space-x-elon-musk-drone-rocket-landing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"SpaceX successfully lands Falcon 9 rocket","caption":"SpaceX successfully lands Falcon 9 rocket","creditText":"Jim Olive—Polaris","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4320750/spacex-falcon-9-rocket-lands-second/","name":"SpaceX Successfully Lands a Rocket on a Drone Ship, Again"}}]}] ```