Once in position 1336 kilometres above Earth, Jason-3 will bounce radio waves off the ocean and time how long it takes the reflected signals to return.
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Video of the landing shows the rocket coming down quickly and landing. The Falcon 9 blasted off earlier in the day from Vandenberg Air Force Base to put the U.S- and European-owned Jason 3 climate-monitoring satellite into orbit. SpaceX last attempt to land a rocket on land succeeded.
A successful ocean landing would have marked a second milestone for SpaceX a month after it nailed a spaceflight first with a successful ground landing in Florida, a key step in Musk’s quest to develop a cheap, reusable rocket.
Musk said one of the Falcon 9 Rocket’s legs failed to lock into place upon landing and that is the reason why it broke, causing the rocket to fall over.
This was SpaceX’s third try at a barge landing following two endeavors in 2015.
Nevertheless, viewers watching unstable live footage from the drone ship will have been disappointed to find out, after failing to see the landing due to a rough satellite connection, that the attempt had failed anyway. Similar to an aircraft carrier vs land: “much smaller target area, that’s also translating & rotating”, he said.
Musk’s space vision is to radically slash the costs of launching people and payloads to space by recovering and reflying rockets – built individually at great expense – rather than completely discarding them after a single use.
Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of mission assurance for SpaceX, said previously that the current rocket would have been able to return to land, but the company does not have environmental approval at Vandenberg yet.
SpaceX Falcon 9 First stage approaches center of landing droneship in Pacific Ocean.
This is not the first time SpaceX has failed to stick a landing on a seagoing barge.
“After further data review, stage landed softly but leg 3 didn’t lockout”, SpaceX noted on Twitter. “Won’t be last [Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly], but am optimistic about upcoming ship landing”, he tweeted.
Sunday’s launch was the fourth attempt by Elon Musk’s SpaceX to safely land a rocket at sea.
Remnants of Falcon 9 first stage after crash landing on barge at sea.
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A weather satellite was successfully launched into space atop the rocket, but officials said the booster snapped a support leg and fell over after it touched down.
