Support leg breaks as SpaceX rocket lands on ocean barge

Within a few minutes after Jason-3 detached itself from the rocket’s second stage, the satellite unfolded its solar arrays.

After lifting off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California Sunday morning, the Falcon 9 sent the Jason-3 satellite into orbit.

SpaceX’s latest attempt to land a rocket upright on a platform in the Pacific Ocean failed in a spectacular fashion on Sunday.

This is not the first time SpaceX has failed to stick a landing on a seagoing barge.

The rocket returned to a floating barge in the Pacific Ocean and tried to land, but one of its legs gave out sending the rocket toppling over and exploding when it hit the surface, Independent reports.

The rocket successfully delivered an ocean-monitoring satellite into orbit after launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base, northwest of Los Angeles.

What caused Falcon 9’s explosion? The tricky part was attempting to land the rocket onto an unmanned barge floating 200 miles off the Southern California coast.

“Falcon lands on droneship, but the lockout collet doesn’t latch on one the four legs”, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk explains on his official Instagram account, “causing it to tip over post landing”. “Won’t be last RUD, but am optimistic about upcoming ship landing”. This condensation would have come from the heavy fog surrounding the rocket before it launched. For years, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been able to move forward at Blue Origin’s expense. It will also measure global sea level rise, continuing an unbroken record of more than two decades of sea level measurements from other satellites in orbit. After correcting the problem, a successful launch last month restored Falcon 9s to flight status. But more importantly, landing the rockets that shoot satellites into space – instead of letting them fall to pieces back to Earth – means the same rockets can be used over and over again.

“So until we see you next time, I’d encourage you to look forward and to look up, for the stars look very different today”, he said, quoting Bowie’s 1969 song “Space Oddity”.

“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 satellite and information service at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).