SpaceX fails to hit ANOTHER landing: Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 rocket loses droneship and sinks into the ocean after a Starlink mission
- The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lost its drone when it landed on Monday
- The rocket landed in Naturally, I still love you, but it crashed into the ocean
- Elon Musk said they were able to retrieve the active ridge from half the rocket
- SpaceX is scheduled to launch another batch of Starlink satellites tonight at 9:55 p.m. ET
SpaceX failed to land after the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket Monday evening.
The rocket successfully deployed a new batch of 60 Internet Starlink satellites into orbit, but reinforcements lost the Of Course I Still Love You drones at Port Canaveral on their return.
During SpaceX’s live broadcast of the mission, a flash of light is seen on the right side of the landing pad when the booster was touched.
Although the firm has not made any official announcement, CEO Elon Musk hints at Twitter the idea that crashed into the ocean.
A Twitter user posted shortly after Monday’s mission: “RIP booster you will be missing,” to which Musk responded, “Yes. The active fairing has been recovered in half.
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Monday’s Starlink mission kicked off at 10:59 p.m. ET, when Falcon 9 started the engine and took off into the night sky.
The failed reinforcement landing comes just two weeks after SpaceX’s Starship Serial Number 9 (SN9) prototype exploded when it attempted to land after its first altitude test on February 2nd.
Monday’s Starlink mission kicked off at 10:59 p.m. ET, when Falcon 9 started the engine and took off into the night sky.
Because the area was completely dark, the rocket looked like a shooting star heading into space.
After launching the Starlinks batch, the booster once again hit the atmosphere by restarting its three engines to brake.
During SpaceX’s live broadcast of the mission, a flash of light is seen on the right side of the landing pad when the booster was touched.
Moments later, SpaceX turned the live broadcast into droneship to see the booster land, but things didn’t go as planned.
“Looks like we didn’t get the boost on Naturally, I still love you,” one of the ground crew members said on the live broadcast.
“It’s unfortunate we don’t get that reinforcement back.”
The failed landing happened almost a year after another impeller was lost to the sea during the landing.
Because the area was completely dark, the rocket looked like a shooting star heading into space. After launching the Starlinks batch, the booster hit the atmosphere again by restarting its three engines to slow down.
Although the firm has not made any official announcement, CEO Elon Musk hints at Twitter the idea that crashed into the ocean. A Twitter user posted shortly after Monday’s mission, “RIP booster you will be missing,” to which Musk replied, “Yes. The active fairing has recovered by half.”
Still, the setback doesn’t stop SpaceX from launching its twentieth batch of Starlink satellites on Tuesday at 9:55 p.m. ET.
SpaceX rarely has issues with its Falcon 9 rockets, but the same cannot be said with its Starship rocket prototypes.
On February 2, the firm lost the SN9 and in December the SN8, both of which exploded as they tried to land.
The SN9 reached its maximum altitude, but on its return journey, the massive rocket could not crawl in time and crashed into the launch pad.
However, the SN8 looked like it would get stuck on the landing, but it exploded the second it hit the ground.