But the mission didn’t turn out to be totally disastrous. SpaceX was able to successfully launch two satellites into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida today.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted, “Looks like thrust was low on 1 of 3 landing engines. High g landings v sensitive to all engines operating at max.” A few seconds later came this tweet: “RUD = Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly :)”
CTV News reports that Musk said the problem was in one of the three engines used to slow down the booster on landing. This is a critical time and one that must be accomplished with precision.
This was the last frame seen before video cut out. @spaceX #Falcon9 #SchrodingerRocket pic.twitter.com/iXgR3alMP6
— SpaceFlight Insider (@SpaceflightIns) June 15, 2016
SpaceX’s first successful barge landing came in April, with two more last month. It also landed a 15-story booster in December on land at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. More work is going to have to be done if Musk wants to continue to recycle booster rockets as a money-saving measure.
As Gizmodo points out, the landing today, even though it was a failure, is not altogether a loss. We need to keep in mind that every landing SpaceX has attempted has been slightly different as engineers investigate different orbits and landing strategies. So crashes are expected as adjustments are made to gain the highest level of success.
Musk says the two satellites did quite nicely, as can be seen in the following video footage:
