WATCH: SpaceX animation shows how reusable rocket would work [VIDEO]

WATCH: SpaceX animation shows how reusable rocket would work [VIDEO]

A previous attempt at landing a rocket on an ocean platform failed, but SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the company could try again as early as next month.

SpaceX has released an animation that shows exactly how the company’s plan for a reusable rocket would work.

The 2.5-minute video (below) depicts the Falcon Heavy rocket lifting off with three boosters to deliver a payload into orbit, and then returning the three boosters back to Earth, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, says that if successful, the ability to land a rocket after launching it instead of dumping it into the sea would save a huge amount of money, allowing for cheaper and more frequent flights into space.

The company will begin testing the Falcon 9 Heavy rocket later this year.

A previous attempt to land the rocket on a platform in the ocean a few weeks ago was unsuccessful after the rocket made a hard landing. Musk said it was just an initial test that didn’t have a high probability of succeeding anyway, but would help with future tests.

SpaceX claims that the Falcon Heavy rocket will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by far, and will have thrust equivalent to 18 747 jetliners operating at the same time.

The Falcon Heavy rocket will be 224.4 feet tall and have 27 engines that will power the three boosters in its first stage. The second stage will have one engine that is meant to deliver the satellite into a certain orbit after separating the first stage, which would then be returned to Earth.

The video shows the Falcon Heavy rocket blasting off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX has a deal with NASA to use the launch pad. The company is under contract with the agency to deliver supplies and equipment to the International Space Station.

Once the two side boosters separate from the spacecraft after the launch, they would then turn around and land upright on a pad back on Earth, with the core booster separating from the second stage and also flying back to the ground. The second stage would deliver the payload into orbit.

Musk said the failed landing happened because the rocket ran out of hydraulic fluid used to control its stabilization during descent, which resulted in the hard landing and subsequent explosion upon contact with the platform.

Undeterred, the company will make another attempt at landing a Falcon 9 booster on the ocean platform as early as next month.

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