SpaceX Successfully Launches Dragon Rocket, Fails to Make Landing
Ashley Allen / 9 years ago
Elon Musk’s astronautics outfit SpaceX conducted a successful rocket launch on Saturday, but the landing left a little to be desired. The Dragon capsule was launched early on Saturday morning, and the rocket made it into orbit for rendezvous with the International Space Station. However, the return journey – the landing of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle on an out-to-sea barge – was not as successful.
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) January 10, 2015
According to Musk, the force of the impact of the module on the barge caused significant damage to the support equipment onboard. He then speculated that the landing failure may have been caused by a hydraulic fluid leak from one of the module’s fins, affecting its stability.
Source: Ars Technica
