SpaceX Falcon 9 explodes on landing after space delivery

SpaceX will attempt barge landings with its next two Falcon 9 launches: the SES-9 comms satellite, which needs to go into geostationary orbit in February, and then an ISS resupply mission in March.

SpaceX is trying to land a rocket booster on what it calls an “autonomous spaceport drone ship”, essentially a floating platform at sea.

Despite the setback, Musk said he felt “optimistic” about a future attempt at landing a SpaceX rocket in this way.

A Falcon 9 rocket did, however, have a successful landing last month following a launch at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

“After further data review, stage landed softly but leg 3 didn’t lockout”.

“As we touched down, it was a slightly harder landing than we expected, and it looks like one of the landing legs may have broken as we touched down on the drone ship”, said John Federspiel, SpaceX’s lead mechanical design engineer. In both attempts, the rockets hit the platform, but they came down too hard or at a slight angle, tipped over and exploded. Similar to an aircraft carrier vs land: “much smaller target area, that’s also translating & rotating”, Musk said in a series of tweets.

Despite the failure of the landing gear, Sunday’s launch was largely considered a success because it achieved its primary goal to put the USA and European-owned Jason-3 satellite into orbit 1,336km above the planet. “Solar arrays deployed & power positive”. The five-year mission of the satellite will be to study more precisely the global warming and sea level rises are affecting wind speeds and currents, up to as close to the shore as about a half-mile.

But a company official said the SpaceX video feed that the landing of the booster was secondary to the successful launch of the weather satellite, Jason 3, which was successully hefted into a low Earth orbit.

In May 2015, SpaceX was certified by the Air Force to compete for military launches with United Launch Alliance LLC, a project created by Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Once in position 1336km above Earth, Jason-3 will bounce radio waves off the ocean and time how long it takes the reflected signals to return.

The technology will monitor global sea surface heights, tropical cyclones and help support seasonal and coastal forecasts.