Apparently while I wasn't paying attention, SpaceX lifted 70 and 50 meters long, 9 meter wide steel cylinders outside of the atmosphere and then dropped them at nearby orbital velocity back down - but tumbled both. First ever live streamed high def video of re-entry heating plasma, though.
I do wonder if they'll be able to recover any of the wreckage. Hope no whales were harmed. Or petunias.
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@osma on these test flights there was never any intention of recovering the wreckage. It was intentionally missions set out to collect data so that future launches could be made more efficient and sustainable.
Also, lack of harm to whales is part of the design considerations as they design these missions and present them to regulators for approvals!
