Landing from helo https://t.co/dYomRtG0Xs

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 22, 2015

The landing is a huge victory for Musk and his team, who were sidelined after the explosion of the Falcon 9 rocket in June as it carried the Dragon capsule to the International Space Station.

Last month, Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and his company Blue Origin successfully launched a rocket to a test altitude of 329,839 feet and then landed it near the launch pad in Texas.

ABC News' Erin Dooley contributed to this report.

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