Falcon 9 succeeds in middle-of-the-night launch and landing – Spaceflight Now

In other Elon Musk news of the day, see Tesla Falls on Cash Concerns, Doubt About Manufacturing Goals (Bloomberg)

"JCSAT 14 needed to go to a much higher orbit, requiring extra speed and fuel from the first stage engines. That meant the rocket would descend back through the atmosphere faster, with less fuel to slow down for the final approach to the vessel.

In other words, the rocket had to slam on the brakes to nail the landing.

Instead of the single-engine landing burn directly above the drone ship, the rocket fired up three engines to slow itself for touchdown, tripling the deceleration experienced by the booster in the final moments of the flight. And the recovery maneuver omitted a “boostback” burn to direct the rocket toward the vessel.

Elon Musk, the company’s founder and CEO, said on Twitter: “May need to increase size of rocket storage hangar.”"

Falcon 9 succeeds in middle-of-the-night launch and landing – Spaceflight Now