US aerospace firm SpaceX has launched a commercial communications satellite for South Korea and then landed the rocket on a floating drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
A SpaceX two-stage Falcon 9 rocket carrying the KoreaSat 5A communications satellite took from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.
The satellite was deployed to a geostationary transfer orbit about 36 minutes after liftoff.
KoreaSat 5A, operated by KT SAT, South Korea's sole satellite service provider is a replacement for Koreasat-5, which was launched in 2006. It will provide direct-to-home broadcasting and other communications services in South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia.
Unlike other satellites in the Koreasat fleet, Koreasat-5A will also provide maritime coverage of the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, South China Sea, and East China Sea, SpaceX said.
In addition to delivering the satellite, the Falcon 9 had a secondary mission of attempting to land the rocket's first-stage on the "Of Course I Still Love You" drone ship, positioned in the Atlantic Ocean.
That occurred successfully about eight minutes after liftoff.
To date, SpaceX has returned and landed a Falcon 9's first stage 19 times on land and at sea.
Such landings are part of SpaceX's efforts to develop fully reusable rockets, which the California-based company believed could bring down spaceflight costs.
Google sacks 28 employees involved in protests over Israel govt contract
Tech giant Google has laid off 28 employees who were involved in sit-in protests at its offices over a Google contract with the Israeli government.
'Made in India' tech like DPI can be transformative for the world: Bill Gates
Microsoft Co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on Saturday said that technologies like digital public infrastructure (DPI) that are created in India can be transformative for the world.
India is the next big playground for AI: Samsung VC, CEO JH Han
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of the Device eXperience (DX) Division Jaong-Hee (JH) Han, who visited Samsung BKC at Jio World Plaza, Mumbai for the first time since the store's opening, said on Friday that India is the next big playground for artificial intelligence (AI).
ISRO's step towards realising Indian space shuttle 'Pushpak'
India progressed further in its attempt to realise a reusable launch vehicle (RLV)/ rocket named 'Pushpak' by successfully test landing RLV LEX-2 on Friday at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) in Karnataka's Chitradurga.
AI will be smarter than any single human by next year: Musk
Elon Musk who is currently locked in a battle with ChatGPT maker OpenAI said on Wednesday that artificial intelligence (AI) will probably be smarter than any single human by next year.
NASA’s Crew 7 targets March 12 to return to Earth
NASA’s Crew 7 astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) are preparing to return to Earth, after a six-month stay in the orbiting lab, the US space agency has said.
Meta suffers mega outage as FB, Instagram, Messenger stop working for millions
In one of the worst outages for Meta in years, its entire family of apps -- Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads -- went down for millions across the globe, including in India, as users were thrown out from their accounts.
Narendra Modi first PM to visit ISRO’s VSSC in 4 decades, meets Gaganyaan astronauts
Narendra Modi on Tuesday became the first Prime Minister to visit the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in four decades, where he met the four astronaut-designates of India's Gaganyaan Mission