But SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, California, had the secondary goal of sticking the landing on the drone ship.
Advertisement
The company, which initially said it thought the rocket experienced a “hard landing”, explained that one of the legs failed to latch on the landing platform.
However, when the rocket was expected to touch down on the landing pad named “Just Read the Instructions”, the video feed was cut off.
Its primary mission was to put the Jason 3 ocean-mapping satellite into orbit, and it did so successfully.
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.
The rocket’s main mission, to launch the Jason-3 ocean monitoring satellite, was a resounding success.
SpaceX said that the stage landed softly but leg 3 didn’t lockout.
The company’s two previous ocean-landing attempts in 2015 were also unsuccessful.
The Falcon 9 spacecraft was attempting to land in the Pacific Ocean when it suddenly toppled over and exploded yesterday morning. 1 configuration of the rocket, which will be replaced with the same Falcon 9 Full Thrust version that successfully landed last month.
SpaceX will attempt barge landings with its next two Falcon 9 launches: the SES-9 comms satellite, which needs to go into geostationary orbit in February, and then an ISS resupply mission in March.
All the signs appeared good after the rocket launched from Vandenberg Airforce Base in California on Sunday night. The target is smaller and isn’t completely still as it’s tossed about in the waves. On Sunday, the private space agency opted for an ocean landing attempt. NOAA is partnering with NASA, the French Space Agency CNES, and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).
Advertisement
In the end, the problem on Sunday was not due to high speed or a turbulent ocean, but came down to a leg on the rocket that did not lock out as anticipated. The data will provide critical ocean information to help forecasters predict hurricanes and severe weather before they arrive onshore.
