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
Grid fins worked extremely well from hypersonic velocity to subsonic, but ran out of hydraulic fluid right before landing.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 10, 2015
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket that successfully put a Dragon cargo capsule in orbit on Saturday, but its unprecedented attempt to land the uncrewed rocket’s first stage at sea ended with a crash.
The primary goal of the launch was to send more than 5,000 pounds (2,300 kilograms) of supplies, equipment and experiments to the International Space Station aboard the Dragon. That part of the mission unfolded flawlessly.
After the Dragon and the Falcon’s second stage separated and went on their way, the 14-story-tall first stage was programmed to try flying itself back to an “autonomous spaceport drone ship” sitting about 200 miles off Florida’s Atlantic coast. SpaceX’s billionaire founder, Elon Musk, said in a Twitter update that the stage “made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard.”
“Close, but no cigar this time,” he said.
Ship itself is fine. Some of the support equipment on the deck will need to be replaced…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 10, 2015
Didn't get good landing/impact video. Pitch dark and foggy. Will piece it together from telemetry and … actual pieces.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 10, 2015