SpaceX: ice buildup may have led rocket to tip over

After sending the Jason-3 satellite into orbit the Falcon 9 rocket will attempt to land its discarded first stage on a floating barge in the Pacific Ocean. At 14 stories tall and traveling at an incredible speed of nearly one mile per second, successfully landing the first-stage rocket “is like trying to balance a rubber broomstick on your hand in the middle of a wind storm”. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and successfully launched the Jason-3 satellite into low-earth orbit, before the first-stage rocket began falling back to Earth. That’s when SpaceX’s rocket exploded shortly after launch, destroying an unmanned spacecraft carrying supplies to the International Space Station.

“SpaceX will soon make Falcon 9 landings routine”, Bezos posted on Twitter. SpaceX last attempt to land a rocket on land succeeded.

Musk tweeted that the lockout collet on one of the rocket’s four legs didn’t latch, causing it to tip over after landing.

“Root cause may have been ice buildup due to condensation from heavy fog at liftoff”, he said.

This was SpaceX’s third try at a barge landing following two endeavors in 2015.

But Musk saw a silver lining, expressing confidence that the next attempt at a ship landing would be successful. Similar to an aircraft carrier vs land: “much smaller target area, that’s also translating & rotating”, he said.

The failed landing of the Falcon 9 rocket is a setback for the company, whose mission is to reduce future launch costs by reusing the multi-million dollar rockets instead of having them fall into the ocean as is now done. Landing them upright may help winnow the cost of access to space by a hundredfold, Musk has estimated, because the bulk of launch costs comes from building a rocket that flies only once.

Although SpaceX initially thought the booster made a hard landing, further data review revealed that the rocket in fact made a successful soft landing. “Was within 1.3 meters of droneship center”.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX program test hit a bit of a snag yesterday afternoon, in the form of his rocket toppling over and blowing up.

A weather satellite was successfully launched into space atop the rocket, but officials said the booster snapped a support leg and fell over after it touched down.