Today in its second attempt to forge ahead into a crazy-like-a-fox future of space flight, SpaceX attempted to land a first-stage rocket back on Earth after sending it heavenward. While SpaceX succeeded in hitting its target—a floating drone barge off the coast of Florida, the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket again landed hard enough to render it unusable the next time around.
Ascent successful. Dragon enroute to Space Station. Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2015
#Falcon9 first stage approaches Just Read the Instructions. pic.twitter.com/XzmnYslNlc
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 14, 2015
The first report out of the launch bubbled up on Twitter, painting a vivid mental image of how that whole hitting a literal moving target with a 200-foot-tall rocket thing went down.
While no footage of the rocket’s crash-ish landing had made it online yet, SpaceX appears to have avoided the issues that plagued the rocket’s fins and fine-tuned positioning the first time around, resulting in a not-yet-soft but more upright—and perhaps less Vine-worthy—landing.
Miss today’s @SpaceX #Falcon9 launch? Want to see it again? Watch now. #Dragon set to arrive at @Space_Station Fri.https://t.co/XyrO9bx3Uy
— NASA (@NASA) April 14, 2015
Meanwhile, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft appears to be doing just fine on its critical mission to caffeinate the International Space Station.
.@SpaceX #ISScargo mission – solar arrays have deployed & #Dragon is on its way to the @Space_Station! pic.twitter.com/CiP7g2KBWT
— NASA (@NASA) April 14, 2015
Editor’s note: This post has been updated to provide additional clarity and context.
Photo via SpaceX
