SpaceX has done four attempted landings on an ocean barge, and none of those four have worked out.
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The booster stage that landed in December survived its flight in good shape, and it performed well in engine tests after its recovery, SpaceX representatives said last month.
An earlier version of this story indicated that, per a tweet from a NASA rocket scientist, the rocket landing had been confirmed.
It was SpaceX’s first mission for SES and the first of three launched planned for the company in 2016, provided they are able to reduce more frequently and cut back on the number of delays, the newspaper added. The company provides satellite communications services to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators and business and governmental organisations worldwide.
After some frustrating postponements over the past week and a half – including a last-second abort on Sunday – the company’s Falcon rocket left its Florida pad right on cue on Friday.
As usual, SpaceX tried to land the discarded first-stage booster. The results are unknown.
The company scored a rocket landing on the ground at Cape Canaveral in December, but has yet to nail a trickier barge landing at sea.
“Target altitude of 40,600 kilometers achieved”, wrote SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Twitter.
While the main mission was a success, SpaceX had a secondary goal to attempt to land the first stage of its rocket on board a floating ocean platform called “Of Course I Still Love You”. Part of this strategy involves the use of drone barges, which will allow the Falcon 9 booster to land downrange from a variety of trajectories that would prohibit a touchdown on dry land. No other rocket has ever successfully made an ocean-landing before. Compare that to a commercial airliner-each new plane costs about the same as Falcon 9, but can fly multiple times per day, and conduct tens of thousands of flights over its lifetime. SpaceX said in a mission description (PDF) published ahead of time that because of the launch’s specific profile, “a successful landing is not expected”.
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First stage Falcon 9 attempting to land on the ship “Just Read the Instructions”. The SES-9 communications satellite was carried by the second stage of the rocket. Martin Halliwell, SES chief technology officer, told reporters before the first launch try.
