The first stage was slowed down before its impact with the ocean

Sep 30, 2013 16:26 GMT  ·  By

SpaceX has successfully launched an updated version of its Falcon 9 rocket. The new Falcon 9 v1.1, a naming scheme borrowed from the software industry, features some evolutionary changes which make the rocket more powerful and more useful.

The rocket successfully carried the Canadian Cassiope research satellite into orbit yesterday. The new rocket features more powerful engines, nine Merlin 1Ds, as well as elongated fuel tanks with a bigger capacity. This means that it can go higher and farther than before, opening up the possibility for more mission types.

SpaceX already has plenty of orders from companies and organizations to put various research and commercial satellites into orbit. The launch paves the way for more of these missions.

The launch was also used as an experiment in SpaceX's goal of designing a fully reusable rocket. In the experiment, the first stage was supposed to fire its engines before it hit the water after it detached from the rest of the rocket. This would slow it down enough to make it recoverable, SpaceX hoped.

Normally, the first stage engines hit the water at great speed, shattering in the process. But SpaceX wants to keep costs down by reusing as much of the rocket as possible.

The experiment wasn't a complete success. SpaceX was successful in slowing down the rocket initially, but the stage lost stability during the final moments and hit the water harder than intended. Still, SpaceX founder Elon Musk says that engineers got what they wanted out of the experiment and know what went wrong as well as how to correct it.

SpaceX has been experimenting with a VTVL rocket, the Grasshopper, which uses just one Merlin engine, and has safely landed it back to Earth from a relatively high altitude, though nowhere near what the first stage of the Falcon 9 normally reaches.