After a lot of publicity and one aborted launch attempt, SpaceX tried to land its Falcon 9 rocket on a drone barge this morning. 'Tried' very much being the key word.
The first stage made it to the 'autonomous spaceport drone' (that's a robot barge to you and me) without problem, but then, according to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, "landed hard":
Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
Ship itself is fine. Some of the support equipment on the deck will need to be replaced...
Didn't get good landing/impact video. Pitch dark and foggy. Will piece it together from telemetry and ... actual pieces.
But as Musk points out, the mission wasn't a complete failure. Landing a rocket vertically on a moving ship isn't exactly easy — SpaceX has likened it to "trying to balance a rubber broomstick on your hand in the middle of a wind storm". The actual landing is comprised of a few different parts: First, a boostback burn gets the craft headed in the right direction; a second 'supersonic retro propulsion' slows the rocket to 250 meters per second; and a final landing burn brings it to about 2 meters per second.
Source: gizmodo.com
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Denis Masi: Angela Flowers Gallery, 11 Tottenham Mews, London W1, May 5-May 30 1981 : Spacex Gallery, 45 Preston Street, Exeter, October 9-Novemeber 7 ... Liverpool L1 3BX January 9-February 5 1982 Book (Spacex Gallery) |
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Actually, I vaguely remember something about this. I recall watching the news and seeing this film of a rocket lifting off, rising into the sky, and after a few seconds going out of control and crashing in a huge explosion.
What I especially remember is that after a few seconds of silence in mission control, a voice said "Was it supposed to do that?"
Not recently at all. Years ago I ate at Colonial Sanders. I was 100% fine. The stuff went through me like router rooter. I had to use a public bathroom and was in such pain I actually sat on the toilet. Cleaned me out more aggressively than a prescribed cleanse for a colonoscopy.