SpaceX rocket botches ocean landing again

Mar 08, 2016, 23:29

Private space agency SpaceX was finally able to complete the latest launch of its Falcon 9 rocket on Friday afternoon, after more than a week of delays and difficulties.

The rocket's first stage separated about 2.5 minutes after launch and then performed a series of engine burns for an experimental landing on the "Of Course I Still Love You" drone ship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast.

From Cape Canaveral, the brilliant orange flame cut through the pink and purple sky while the setting sun illuminated the rocket's trail so brilliantly that it was visible in the skies from as far away as Tampa. According to SpaceX, the SES-9 satellite will provide broadcast and communications capabilities across Northeast Asia, South Asia, Indonesia, India and the Philippines.

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The leftover first-stage booster hit the floating platform hard Friday, said SpaceX chief Elon Musk.

It managed a successful ground, landing in December, but landing on a tiny barge in the middle of the ocean has proved more taxing. This was the company's fourth attempt to land a rocket on a floating platform at sea.

Because of the loss of direct video feed and telemetry, as well as the distance of the seadrone from land, information as to the fate of the booster was unknown until Musk made the following tweet, "Rocket landed hard on droneship". In theory, cheaper, reusable rockets would mean easier travel to and from space, and help free Nasa from onerous deals like its current $70m-per-astronaut contract with the Russian Federation.

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The failure was not a surprise as SpaceX itself had little hope for the rocket recovery test, part of the company's efforts to produce a fully reusable rocket. SpaceX and its founder Elon Musk cautioned prior to this launch that "a successful landing is not expected, " (PDF link) due to the mission's "unique" profile, which involves deploying a satellite payload at a very high altitude".

On three previous occasions that took place in January and April 2015 and earlier this year, Falcon 9's booster toppled over on the drone ship and exploded while trying an ocean landing. Satellite operator, SES, based in Luxembourg, owns the newly launched satellite.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force station Friday, March 3, 2016.

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