Support leg breaks as rocket lands on ocean barge

Jason-3 lifted off at 10:42 am PST from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, under foggy skies with winds of 5 miles per hour (8 km/h).

The unmanned mission, which launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, had two goals.

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.

Booster rockets have typically been left to tumble back to Earth after launch, leaving them broken up by the intense heat of re-entering the atmosphere.

Musk, like others, is working to recover the rockets in an attempt to lower the cost of space travel, so that it can become more accessible to the masses.

The rocket booster landed on target on a barge in the Pacific Ocean, but snapped a support leg as it touched down, SpaceX officials said.

Though SpaceX had planned to broadcast the landing attempt live, camera footage cut out seconds before touch down.

“Jason-3 will take the pulse of our changing planet by gathering environmental intelligence from the world’s oceans”, said Stephen Volz, assistant administrator for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service.

The Jason-3, which will also monitor weather in commercial shipping lanes. It was built by Thales Alenia of France.

Meanwhile NASA said Jason-3 was “ready for science operations” after it reached orbit and had its solar arrays deployed.

If all goes according to plan, Jason-3 will spend about 17 days maneuvering to a polar orbit with an altitude of 830 miles (1,336 km).

Measurements of sea-surface height, or ocean-surface topography, reveal the speed and direction of ocean currents and tell scientists how much of the sun’s energy is stored by the ocean. Despite the recent failure, Musk is taking it all in stride and joked that at least this time the “pieces were bigger” referring to the fact that the two previous ocean landing attempts ended with the rockets exploding.

The barge landing attempt would not be visible from shore because it will occur beyond the horizon, he said.

The cost of the mission, including five years of operation, was put at $180 million. This mission will maintain data critical to understanding, mitigating, and adapting to the effects of climate change on global sea level rise.