On Tuesday, Elon Musk’s space start-up Space X made a new attempt to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a boat. Even though the main mission of the launch had been accomplished, the rocket was unable to have a success at landing on a floating barge that had been stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
This would be the second time that SpaceX has been unable to land the Falcon 9 successfully and the tweet from Musk had a slight bit of discontent after the failed rocket launch.
“Ascent successful,” said Musk. “Dragon enroute [sic] to Space Station. Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival.”
In the following tweet, Musk added that the Falcon 9 did land “fine,” but “excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing.”
The first attempt of Space X to land the rocket had been in January, but the rocket had exploded right after landing at an angle.
Regardless of these two failures, SpaceX is still determined to successfully land the Falcon 9 on the drone ship. It is also hopeful for the rocket to land on the ground. Musk has said that this has been done so that costs can be reduced substantially if it is proven that rockets can someday be reused like aero planes.
At 4:10 pm Eastern Time the Falcon 9 launched. The rocket left Earth’s atmosphere, then flipped nearly upside-down before igniting booster rockets to maneuver itself back toward the ground. It then used side fins and its engines to guide itself toward a drone-operated barge in the Atlantic Ocean. It hit the barge, but with too much speed.
In the meantime, the Dragon which has been launched to the International Space Station (ISS) with over two tons of food and supplies actually did take off successfully. It is scheduled to dock with the ISS tomorrow. Amongst all the food, supplies and other equipments is a specialized coffee machine that is called ISSpresso.
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