“Falcon lands on droneship, but the lockout collet doesn’t latch on one the four legs, causing it to tip over post landing”, Musk wrote in a description.
Advertisement
At first, it appears the rocket landed successfully, but one of its legs breaks and the rocket starts to topple over on its side.
The feat of having made the landing on the tiny platform won accolades from fellow tech entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, the Amazon.com Inc chief executive whose Blue Origin space company is pursuing similar technology.
It was a valiant attempt, and as you can see in the video above, Falcon 9 was this close to sticking the landing.
Elon believes the leg lockout may have failed because of ice buildup created by heavy condensation during the foggy liftoff, Christian Science Monitor added.
After years of testing, including two failed ocean landing attempts, SpaceX last month nailed a touchdown on land in Florida, a key step in founder Elon Musk’s quest to develop a cheap, reusable rocket.
While the private space company successfully delivered NASA’s Jason-3 satellite into orbit over the weekend, its Falcon 9 rocket was unable to land on a floating barge off the coast of California. Lift-off from Vandenberg Air Force Base is scheduled for 10:42 am PST (1842 GMT). It then returned to Earth, attempting to land upright on an ocean barge. Last week, SpaceX was among three winners in another round of contracts to haul cargo to the International Space Station.
Like its three predecessors, Jason-3 is equipped with radar altimeter to bounce microwave energy off the ocean and a GPS system to identify the satellite’s precise location. It will also help forecast the strength of hurricanes and other severe weather, and track ocean conditions critical for the shipping industry.
Jason-3 is a joint venture between the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. Its successor, Jason-1, operated from 2001 to 2013.
Advertisement
The cost of the mission, including five years of operation, was put at $180 million.
