Video: Failed SpaceX Falcon 9 Ocean Landing

By  //  April 15, 2015


ABOVE VIDEO: SpaceX Falcon 9’s first stage fails to successfully land on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean. Video courtesy of LiveLeak.com.


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CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA — Despite an early threat of thunderstorm-producing cumulus clouds that scrubbed yesterday’s launch, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off as scheduled today at 4:10 p.m. EDT (20:10 UTC). Roosting atop Falcon was a Dragon spacecraft laden with two tons of International Space Station-bound cargo.

Dragon made it safely to orbit without a hitch. But the second attempt to land Falcon’s first stage on an autonomous drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean fell short.

According to flight controllers on SpaceX’s audio feed, the first stage executed its boostback, entry and landing burns as planned. Nineteen minutes after liftoff, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced that the Falcon landed on the drone ship, but did not survive.

 musk-180“Looks like Falcon landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing” – SpaceX founder Elon Musk said.