Company Hopes To Be Able To Re-Use Its Heavy-Lift Boosters

While it's unlikely to happen on the initial flights, SpaceX has released a video that shows how it hopes to be able to recover its Falcon Heavy boosters by having them make a soft landing back on Earth.

The company got close to landing a Falcon 9 booster on a platform in the ocean in January, but it exploded at the last moment after touching down too hard. According to the online news site The Verge, SpaceX Founder Elon Musk said that if it had not run out of hydraulic fluid just before landing, the recovery might have been successful. The Falcon Heavy is essentially three connected Falcon 9 boosters.

The YouTube video animation shows the three boosters separating after launch, and each being recovered separately. In the video, all three of the boosters land on the ground back at Cape Canaveral, rather than on the floating platform.

The Falcon Heavy booster is designed to carry a payload of over 115,000 pounds. When it launches, it will become the world's most powerful rocket.

FMI: Video