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SpaceX Rocket Launch Succeeds, But Landing Test Doesn't

Posted by Soulskill on from the better-luck-next-time dept.

New submitter 0x2A writes: A Falcon 9 rocket built by SpaceX successfully launched a Dragon cargo ship toward the International Space Station early Saturday— and then returned to Earth, apparently impacting its target ocean platform during a landing test in the Atlantic.

"Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho," Elon Musk tweeted shortly after the launch. He added that they didn't get good video of the landing attempt, so they'll be piecing it together using telemetry and debris. "Ship itself is fine. Some of the support equipment on the deck will need to be replaced."

5 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. Minor setback by Dereck1701 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The fact that it made it to the platform itself is a major milestone, correcting whatever caused it to land hard (rough seas, hardware/software issue, ran out of fuel at the last second) would seem to be childs play compared to what was required to get to that point. Reentering craft usually have landing ellipsis of dozens if not hundreds of square miles and this thing landed on a 300'x170' platform. I look forward to the next (hopefully successful) test.

    1. Re:Minor setback by Zibodiz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly. The fact that it landed well enough that they're reporting the "ship itself is fine" means that it was a success. It doesn't take much to damage a rocket/module/anything that flies into space beyond use. They probably just landed on top of a toolbox or something.

    2. Re:Minor setback by ssam · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I assume that meant the boat was undamaged, not the rocket.

    3. Re:Minor setback by Gavagai80 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There has to be a test range on land somewhere they can try putting one down instead of a pitching platform in the middle of the ocean.

      Not when you launch eastward from Florida.

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  2. it made it home by onepoint · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, I think it's a milestone. Just getting it to land on the platform, in the dark, without any human help. That speaks a lot of the hard work that people invested. So it gets some damage, big deal.
    I am glad that it was not a total success, otherwise people might get into lazy thinking and not look for bugs. I believe (not sure, cannot cite sources on this), but some airplane was not tested enough because everything happened perfect on testing, it was placed into production (1950's). Over the course of a year or 2, the planes were having issues and a few crashed. And they had to stop production. Some sort of fault in the structure.

    So, in summary, He's done it!!! now to get all the bugs worked out.

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