SpaceX bags Falcon Heavy hat-trick rocket landing

The mission, to launch the Arabsat-6A communications satellite into a geosynchronous orbit, saw Falcon Heavy lift off from Cape Canaveral at around 23.35 BST on Thursday, April 11. Just over two and half minutes into the flight, the rocket’s two side boosters separated, landing safely back at Cape Canaveral a few minutes later after controlled re-entry burns.

While this feat had been achieved during Falcon Heavy’s debut launch in 2018, on that occasion the vehicle’s stage 1 core booster – which flies higher and further downrange than the side boosters – crashed into the sea. This time, however, the core booster successfully landed on SpaceX’s drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You”, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast. The hat-trick of landings marks the first time all three stage 1 rockets have been recovered from a SpaceX launch vehicle.