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SpaceX Celebrates Falcon 9 Milestone After CRS-7 Failure

12/19/2025

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Summary

Story summary

On December 21, 2015, SpaceX launched the Orbcomm-2 mission with an upgraded Falcon 9 and achieved its first-stage landing, a milestone detailed in Eric Berger's Reentry.
The story begins with the CRS-7 mission, when a Falcon 9 disintegrated shortly after launch.
David Giger, managing the Dragon program, witnessed the incident and noted the team's shock as Dragon continued to transmit data before crashing into the ocean, losing 4,000 pounds.

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Story summary

On December 21, 2015, SpaceX launched the Orbcomm-2 mission with an upgraded Falcon 9 and achieved its first-stage landing, a milestone detailed in Eric Berger's Reentry.
The story begins with the CRS-7 mission, when a Falcon 9 disintegrated shortly after launch.
David Giger, managing the Dragon program, witnessed the incident and noted the team's shock as Dragon continued to transmit data before crashing into the ocean, losing 4,000 pounds.