SpaceX successfully launches Falcon 9 rocket months after explosion

• Engineers burst into cheers when rocket landed on barge in Pacific Ocean
• Launch was first since September, when rocket exploded on launchpad

SpaceX launched its first rocket since a big explosion last year, when one of the private spaceflight's rockets annihilated a $200m satellite in a spectacular and costly setback.

"Falcon 9 operation is nominal," an engineer declared about a minute after the Saturday morning launch from Vandenberg air force base in southern California, as clapping broke out behind him.