SpaceX rocket launches, pulls off landing on sea platform

A Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, carrying more supplies to the International Space Station. SpaceX was able to land its rocket on a barge April 8, 2016, about 200 miles off the shore of Cape Canaveral, Fla. (Photo: SpaceX) CAPE CANAVERAL -- SpaceX successfully returned its Dragon spacecraft to flight Friday and landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket almost on target on a barge about 200 miles offshore. Flying for the first time since a launch failure June, the Dragon and its nearly 7,000 pounds of cargo are headed for a Sunday morning rendezvous with the International Space Station. The booster landing -- not exactly in the center of the platform but enough to keep the equipment from getting wet in the Atlantic Ocean -- bolsters SpaceX's confidence that it can regularly recover rockets that could be flown again, lowering launch costs. The experiment was SpaceX's first successful ocean landing.