So said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk after his Falcon 9 rocket crashed and burned in the company’s third attempt at landing it on a giant barge floating in the sea.
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The company has already tried to achieve such a feat on two separate occasions, but has failed both times.
Last month SpaceX made history when it landed the Falcon 9 on dry ground at Cape Canaveral, Florida; however, its attempts at sea have been a failure so far.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Jason-3 spacecraft onboard is shown at Vandenberg Air Force Base S …
The 550kg Jason-3 satellite is the fourth in a series of ocean-monitoring satellites, which are now taking centre stage in monitoring the Earth’s climate. Still, SpaceX said, it wants to have the options for both at-sea and on-land landings.
Even so, this was disappointing news for many who were watching, especially after SpaceX successfully recovered a rocket on land just last month. After the botched landing, Mr. Musk, SpaceX’s founder, chief executive and top designer, sent a Tweet stressing that it is “definitely harder to land on a ship”, which he compared to the difference between aiming for “an aircraft carrier vs. land…”
The rocket was able to successfully deliver a satellite into orbit on Sunday.
SpaceX on FlickrPhoto of Sunday’s rocket landing attempt, seconds before touch down.
SpaceX’s latest attempt to land a rocket upright on a platform in the Pacific Ocean failed in a spectacular fashion on Sunday. Scientists can use the information to figure out ocean heights to within 0.2 inches, said Josh Willis, with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The exact launch time was 10:42:18.386 a.m. PST, or 1:42:18.386 p.m. EST – “the targeted bulls-eye”, according to NASA Launch Commentator George Diller. He mentioned that there will be 3 or 4 more launches out of Vandenberg this year, allowing for more opportunities for west coast rocket landings in the future.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Jason-3 satellite before launch.
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The satellite is created to gather data on oceans, including tracking global sea level rise.
