Ambitious plan: billionaire Elon Musk. Photo: Supplied

And now for Elon Musk's next trick.

The billionaire entrepreneur is on the verge of attempting an audacious manoeuvrethat could make his next space flight notable not just for the takeoff, but for the landing.

Typically rocket boosters have their few minutes in the fiery, 3-2-1 spotlight, propelling the rest of the stages into the great beyond, before petering out and crashing unceremoniously into the sea.

A screen grab from a video a drone shot showing a prototype reusable rocket launch and land itself.

But Musk thinks that ditching one of the most expensive parts of the rocket is an unnecessary waste.

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So SpaceX, his start-up space company, has designed a rocket he hopes will be able to launch, then return to Earth, touching down softly on the bullseye of a barge floating in the Atlantic Ocean.

Musk, the founder of Paypal and Tesla Motors, said that the odds of pulling off such an unprecedented feat "are not great - perhaps 50 per cent at best." But if SpaceX is able to one day stick the landing of the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket with consistency, it would mark a significant advancement for space flight.

Musk's Falcon 9 can launch, but can it land? Photo: AP

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Elon Musk's next trick: Landing a rocket upright on a barge in the middle of the sea