The Reusable Rocket Take Two

The company SPACEX is at the forefront of space travel and innovation.  This Sunday, February 8, at approximately 6:30 a.m. the company will be trying to push even further.  SPACEX will be for the second time trying to launch and land its Falcon 9 rocket.  This attempt was made earlier and can be seen failing here: https://vine.co/v/OjqeYWWpVWK .  The attempt failed but just barely.  The rocket landed on a 300 ft. by 100 ft. barge in the Atlantic Ocean which is an enormous achievement for human space travel.  The company is obviously hoping to do much better this attempt but if they fail, SPACEX has another 15 launches already planned for this year alone, including its Falcon Heavy the world's most powerful rocket by a factor of 2.  What is the big deal about landing a rocket and taking off with it again though?  The answer is that this process would significantly decrease the cost of going up into space.  We would be able to send many more missions into space and learn a lot more about a vast area we still know very little.

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Jon Ross at @zlsadesign and zlsa.github.io
         Artist's impression of SpaceX rocket landing.