SpaceX completed the first successful recovery of an orbital-class rocket stage in 2015.
On December 21, 2015, a Falcon 9 first stage returned to land at Cape Canaveral after launching 11 Orbcomm OG2 satellites. The booster, identified as core 1019, performed a controlled powered descent and landed at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 1.
This was a major milestone because earlier reusable rocket demonstrations had involved suborbital vehicles, while Falcon 9 stages first traveled through the demanding conditions of an orbital launch. The landing showed that a booster could deliver payloads to orbit and still retain enough propellant and control authority to return.
SpaceX had attempted an earlier ocean landing during the January 2015 CRS-5 mission, but the stage was destroyed after running out of hydraulic fluid. The 2015 Cape Canaveral landing preceded SpaceX’s first successful drone-ship landing in April 2016.