SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday, making it the first successful spaceflight since last year's explosion. The 2015 failure destroyed a $200 million Israeli satellite, which led to a major financial setback to SpaceX and Elon Musk.

First Successful Launch Since the September Explosion

The Falcon 9 rocket was carrying 10 communication satellites. One minute after the launch in Vandenber air force base located in southern California, an engineer said that the Falcon operation is nominal, with people applauding behind him, The Guardian reported. Two minutes and 48 seconds later, the engineer said that everything was looking good. The engines shut down right before the announcement.

Last September, one of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket exploded at Cape Canaveral in southern Florida. It destroyed an Amos 6 communications satellite, which Facebook plans to lease to expand its internet services across remote places in Africa.

Falcon 9 rocket had a successful landing Saturday on a barge located in the Pacific Ocean, marking the first landing of a rocket on a new drone ship in that area. This made the engineers very happy. The latest launch was supposed to take place last Saturday, but it was postponed due to intense storms.

The launch last Saturday was commissioned by giant telecom company Iridium, which gave a $468 million fund to SpaceX for seven rocket launches.

Financial Details Reveals Downside

On the downside, the financial setbacks from all the failed launches before raises questions on whether or not SpaceX and Mr. Musk still has the financial capacity to push through with their long-range plans of launching more rockets, the New York Times reported. SpaceX also lost $260 million on an earlier accident that happened in 2015. Its revenue went down to $945 million, which is a 6 percent drop.

SpaceX chief financial officer Bret Johnsen said that the company still has 70 future launches amounting to $10 billion worth in contract. He also said that the company still have over $1 billion worth of reserve without debt. He is imposing that they are still in a financially strong position to push through with its future launch plans.

Tags SpaceX, Falcon 9, Elon Musk, Iridium