"Rocket is extra toasty and hit the deck hard (used almost all of the emergency crush core), but otherwise good" - Elon Musk
The deployment of the BulgariaSat-1 to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit was predicted to experience the highest every re-entry force and heat compared with all past booster re-entry and landing attempts. Nevertheless, this one also made it back in one piece and landed on the sea-based "Of Course I Still Love You" (an Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship).
SpaceX is starting to make rocket launches and reusability easy though of course, it is far from it... it's rocket science, after all!
What does this mean for the future? Lower costs of getting equipment into space, more orders for SpaceX, for funding for their beyond-ambitious Mars program, and a brighter space-faring future for humanity!
Don't let the photos below fool you. Those rockets look smallish, but they're huge. The Falcon 9 FT (Full Thrust) is 70 m (230 ft) tall!
This is what re-entry looks like (from a previous mission). Yes, that's the rocket coming back down, not going up!
