US company SpaceX has successfully landed an unmanned rocket upright, after sending 11 satellites into orbit. The Falcon-9 craft touched down late on Monday night, about 10km from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.  SpaceX aims to slash the cost of private space operations with such reusable components – but the company has not launched a rocket since one exploded in June. On that occasion an unmanned Falcon-9 broke apart in flames minutes after lifting off from Cape Canaveral, with debris tumbling out of the sky into the Atlantic Ocean.

The rocket, which had 18 straight successes prior to the fateful flight, was in the process of sending a cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX has a $1.6bn (£1.08bn; €1.47bn) contract with NASA to send supplies to the ISS.

The flawless launch on Monday is a major success for privately-owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, the California-based company set up and run by high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk. Mr Musk has said the ability to return its rockets to Earth so they can be reused and reflown would hugely reduce his company’s operational costs in the growing but highly competitive private space launch industry.

SpaceX is aiming to revolutionise the rocket industry, which up until now has lost millions of dollars in discarded machinery and valuable rocket parts after each launch.