Elon Musk tweets spectacular video of a boat catching a SpaceX rocket nose falling from space

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Elon Musk tweets spectacular video of a boat catching a SpaceX rocket nose falling from space

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SpaceX
  • Elon Musk tweeted footage of ship, named Ms Tree, using a huge net to pluck a SpaceX rocket nose out of the sky.
  • It follows a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching an AMOS-17 communications satellite at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday.
  • It is not the first time Ms Tree has successfully caught a rocket nose.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

SpaceX snatched a rocket nose out of the sky - and CEO Elon Musk posted a video of the moment on Twitter.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched an AMOS-17 communications satellite at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Tuesday. The launch took place at 7:23 p.m. and the satellite was deployed 31 minutes later.

Read more: SpaceX launches Falcon 9 carrying Spacecom AMOS-17 satellite after explosion destroyed first one in 2016

Musk's video captured the moment that the rocket's fairing - a nosecone used to protect the satellite payload - fell back to earth and was rescued by a ship, named Ms Tree, carrying a huge net in the Atlantic Ocean.

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You can watch the video of the capture here:

It is not the first time Ms Tree has successfully caught a fairing. The boat did so in July when SpaceX tweeted a video of the landing from the perspective of the fairing.

Rescuing the rocket nose means SpaceX saves $6 million by not having to build a replacement, according to Musk.

It's another step forward in his mission to recycle rocket parts, which also includes SpaceX's spectacular booster landings.

But Ms Tree has not always been successful. During a recovery test in January, the boat just missed its target, which was dropped from a helicopter.

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