SpaceX has failed again in its attempt to execute a successful ocean landing of the company’s flagship rocket on a drone platform in the Pacific Ocean.
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The Jason-3, a U.S. -European oceanography satellite, was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California atop SpaceX’s unmanned Falcon 9 rocket.
The Jason-3 satellite, made by France and the United States, blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, at 10:42 am (1842 GMT). Jason-3 measurements will also be ingested by numerical prediction models coupling the atmosphere and the oceans used for seasonal forecasting.
Since the Topex/Poseidon-Jason satellite missions began in 1992, researchers have observed a total global sea level rise of 2.8 inches (70 millimeters) an average rate of 0.12 inches (3 millimeters) a year. This had failed twice before and it failed again Sunday, but it nearly worked.
Two previous attempts to land a rocket on a barge in the Atlantic failed, but last month SpaceX succeeded in returning a rocket to a vertical landing at Cape Canaveral, Florida, after putting a cluster of satellites into orbit.
Mr Musk’s Instagram post said the footage showed the cause of the crash could have been due to ice buildup due to condensation from heavy fog at liftoff. “Won’t be last RUD [Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly], but am optimistic about upcoming ship landing”.
Landing on the ground saves the time, trouble and expense of dispatching a floating landing platform and support ships, but not all of SpaceX’s rockets will have the spare fuel to make it back to the launch site.
“More than 90 percent of all the heat being trapped in the Earth’s system … is actually going into the ocean”, said Laury Miller, Jason-3 lead scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The primary goal of Sunday’s launch, powered by a SpaceX rocket, was to carry a satellite into low orbit.
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On the official Twitter page, SpaceX explained: “After further data review, stage landed softly but leg 3 didn’t lockout”. It appears the landing would have been successful had the part not malfunctioned, as the rocket landed within a few yards of the droneship’s center.
