A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched the NASA/NOAA/European Jason-3 sea level rise reconnaissance satellite a short while ago today, Sunday, Jan. 17, from Vandenberg Air Force Base into a polar orbit around the Earth.
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But what the video really reveals is not a failure but just another tiny step toward SpaceX’s ultimate goal of using efficient re-entry rockets that will soon make space missions more affordable.
For Sunday’s launch, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, the vehicle had to attempt a water landing because SpaceX had not yet received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to return to land in California.
The flight mission features the 180-million-U.S. dollar Jason-3 satellite, a newest member in a series of Earth-observing satellites created to provide worldwide observations of global sea levels.
To be fair, Sunday’s landing attempt is more hard than last month’s because it happened on a floating target: One of SpaceX’s un-crewed autonomous drone ships located in the Pacific, 186 miles south of the launch site. However, it failed to latch one of its four legs while landing on an autonomous “drone ship” in the Pacific Ocean, apparently due to ice build up.
During a five-year mission, its data will also be used to aid fisheries management and research into human impacts on the world s oceans.
The rocket apparently set down hard and broke a landing leg, the company said on its Twitter feed.
The failed landing is a blow to the California-based company’s plan to reduce launch costs by reusing rockets rather than having them fall into the ocean.
SpaceX said the rocket landed within 1.3 meters (yards) of the droneship’s center.
However, the company failed to successfully land its reusable, unmanned Falcon 9 rocket. “Won’t be last RUD, but am optimistic about upcoming ship landing”.
Indeed, like Musk said, the residual pieces of the crash are bigger this time compared to the first two similar landing attempts previous year, which ended in a giant explosion and lots of small rocket pieces scattered across the ship’s deck and nearby seafloor. NOAA is partnering with NASA, the French Space Agency CNES, and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).
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A video of the mishap posted online by Space X’s billionaire CEO Elon Musk shows the large rocket landing slightly askew before keeling over and exploding as it hits the ground.
