On 21 December 2015 a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX launched 11 satellites and then its first stage returned to land upright at Cape Canaveral, the first time that a booster from an orbital launch had been recovered. Reuse of rockets, long considered impractical, sharply cut launch costs after the first reflown booster in 2017. By the 2020s, SpaceX was flying dozens of missions a year with boosters flown many times each, and the company was carrying most of the world's launch mass to orbit.
Before and after
- 24 November 20152015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown
- 30 November 20152015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
- 8 December 2015Founding of OpenAI
- 12 December 2015Paris Agreement
- 21 December 2015SpaceX lands an orbital rocket booster
- 2016Discovery of Valetudo
- 2016Mass coral bleaching strikes the Great Barrier Reef
- 2016Known exoplanets pass 2,000
- 2016Known exoplanets pass 3,000
More in Science & technology
- 1964Discovery of rutherfordium
- 29 October 1969Invention of Internet
- 18 February 1970Discovery of dubnium
- July 1974Discovery of seaborgium
- 1976Discovery of bohrium
- 1984Discovery of hassium
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 21st century.