by Paul J. Grad III
"Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement." - C.S. Lewis
Picture s courtesy of SpaceX and NASA
Video courtesy of SpaceX
Article courtesy of The Verge
Today's SpaceX's rocket launch brought both good news and bad for the private space travel company. The event marked the firm's sixth successful resupply mission to the International Space Station, but also its second failed attempt to land a reusable Falcon 9 rocket on a barge at sea.
Today's SpaceX's rocket launch brought both good news and bad for the private space travel company. The event marked the firm's sixth successful resupply mission to the International Space Station, but also its second failed attempt to land a reusable Falcon 9 rocket on a barge at sea.
Looks like Falcon landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing pic.twitter.com/eJWzN6KSJa
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2015
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2015
This is the second time SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has failed to land safely. Back in January, the rocket again made it to the barge designated to be its landing spot, but came in too fast, breaking up in a fiery explosion. Tonight's unsuccessful landing was hardly a surprise to the company, which it once compared the task to balancing a broomstick on your hand during a windstorm. SpaceX founder Elon Musk said he expected a less than 50 percent chance of survival for the rocket, which had to steady itself on descent, before touching down gently on a tiny barge in the middle of the ocean.
Ascent successful. Dragon enroute to Space Station. Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2015
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2015
SpaceX has another rocket launch scheduled for next week, but won't get a chance to test the Falcon 9's landing capabilities. For that, the company will likely have to wait until its next ISS resupply mission, scheduled for June 22nd.
Source:
McCormick, Rich. "Watch SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket almost make a successful landing". The Verge. theverge.com, April 14 2015. Web. Accessed April 16 2015.
Source:
McCormick, Rich. "Watch SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket almost make a successful landing". The Verge. theverge.com, April 14 2015. Web. Accessed April 16 2015.