SpaceX confident enough to try solid-surface landing

SpaceX hopes to fly a Falcon 9 rocket booster back to a solid landing platform within a few months, the next step after the company's initial attempts to land boosters in water.

The company last week confirmed that the first stage of a Falcon 9 successfully landed softly in the Atlantic Ocean after its July 14 launch of Orbcomm satellites from Cape Canaveral.

The booster fired its engines twice to slow its hypersonic speed and control its descent, and deployed landing legs before hitting the water vertically. But when it tipped over on its side, CEO Elon Musk said the resulting "body slam" caused the stage to break apart.

Despite being unable to recover the booster intact, SpaceX said it collected data necessary to achieving a future landing on a solid surface that would enable reuse of the booster on another flight.

"At this point, we are highly confident of being able to land successfully on a floating launch pad or back at the launch site and refly the rocket with no required refurbishment," a company statement said.

SpaceX has two launches planned in August of broadcasting satellites to high orbits, missions for which fuel can't be set aside for booster recovery maneuvers.

The company says those missions eventually will fly on more powerful Falcon Heavy rockets, but until then must continue to fly in "expendable mode" — the mode all previous liquid-fueled orbital rockets have flown in to date.

The next attempt to recover a Falcon 9 booster from the ocean – again with "a low probability of success" – will come during SpaceX's next launch of International Space Station cargo for NASA, tentatively planned in September.

The two flights after that "will attempt to land on a solid surface with an improved probability of success," SpaceX said.