Current discussion : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11457263

Thank you for not posting an article that begins "After 4 failed attempts, Spacex finally...". Makes my blood boil.

Although actually their openness about their failures has been quite inspiring.

May I suggest the non-mobile link?

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-spacex-idUSKCN0X5228

Congrats Elon and the rest of the SpaceX team! I think it's a good opportunity to finally IPO this year. I'll be first in line to buy some shares

May that never come to pass. It would all go downhill from there.

I'm pretty sure that Elon has said that SpaceX won't IPO until it is achieving regular flights to Mars.

Yeah, you'll have to push your way past me.

This makes me very happy. Congratulations to the team behind this. I can only imagine how many hours of work, how many checks and re-checks, how many second-guesses, how many inspirations it took to make this happen. Very well done. The people behind this have put another paving-stone in the path of civilization.

does landing on a sea drone make them any more competitive in terms of cost vs having to use the regular launchpad?

Yes, takes less fuel to land on the drone than to fly back to the launch pad. For larger payloads, it's either land on the drone or throw away the rocket.

awesome :)

It's not just about cost. AIUI, from browsing /r/spacex, it's about feasibility. Less demanding payloads will have enough fuel to return to launch site, some will have enough to land at sea and some payloads will require the use of an 'expendable' configuration where too much fuel will be used to recover the rocket. Expendable launches are more expensive.

Essentially required for high speed launches: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/688844190826942465

A bit of a misnomer that rockets go straight up. In fact they go almost horizontal very fast where trying to find a place to land on land makes little sense.

If I am not mistaken, last time Elon Musk mentioned if you fly with used booster, the price go down 30%.

And that's just the beginning.

Had to happen eventually =) Seriously though, congratulations!

God, hearing that team cheer when they make another first -- gives me chills every time.