The upgraded 23-story-tall rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:29 p.m

Main stage of the rocket returned minutes later to a landing site about 6 miles from the launch pad

This is historic first in the Elon Musk's bid to make rockets reusable to save on launch costs

It marks the first SpaceX flight since a June accident that destroyed a cargo ship bound for the ISS

SpaceX has made history after successfully launching its Falcon 9 rocket into space and returning it to Earth in one piece.

The upgraded 23-story-tall rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:29pm EST, and touched down a few minutes later.

It was the first time an unmanned rocket returned to land vertically at Cape Canaveral, and represented a tremendous success for SpaceX.

The firm, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is striving for reusability to drive launch costs down and open up space to more people

Space X has successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket following a series of technical problems. The rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 8.33pm ET in perfect conditions