SpaceX launches another Falcon 9 booster for the third time

SpaceX succesfully launched another Falcon 9 booster rocket for the third time. This time, the rocket didn't land as it had to use all its fuel to deliver a large, 6.5-ton communications satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. Interestingly, SpaceX did manage to recover one of the rocket's fairings using its Ms Tree recovery boat, as you can see in the amazing video below.

Rocket fairing falls from space & is caught by Ms Tree boat pic.twitter.com/nJv0Ry1iKk

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 7 augustus 2019

ARS Technica has some extra details and highlights that there's been a remarkable sea of change in the rocket industry since SpaceX first attempted to land its rockets. What was once seen as a crazy idea is now gaining a lot of traction because it just makes an awful lot of sense:

Russian space officials have gone from dismissing the economics of reusable launch to creating a new design bureau with the express purpose of studying and developing reusable launch vehicles. For a long time, European rocket scientists, too, scoffed at the utility of reuse. Now they are also studying how to develop a Falcon 9-like rocket. Japan's next rocket after its new H3 booster will likely be reusable, and a raft of Chinese firms are also studying—or perhaps simply copying—the SpaceX model.