SpaceX successfully launched its fifth batch of Starlink internet satellites via a Falcon 9 rocket. Unfortunately, it did not manage to land the rocket’s booster as planned.
The booster was expected to land on a drone ship, called Of Course I Still Love You, approximately eight minutes and 24 seconds after launch. Instead, the booster made a “soft landing” in the ocean next to the ship.
SpaceX’s run of successful landings has been a boon for its business. The more rocket stages it recovers, the more it can reuse for future flights. Reusing rockets is a way to lower the massive cost of getting to space. Not only has SpaceX gotten really good at catching and reusing its rocket stages, but it’s also doing it faster than ever. The rocket launched Monday was last used just 72 days ago, meaning the private spaceflight company almost broke the record for fastest turnaround held by NASA’s space shuttle.
It’s not yet clear what happened during the attempted landing. On the broadcast, all that could be seen was a puff of smoke or steam to the side of the drone ship, indicating that the Falcon 9 booster missed the platform by a fairly wide margin. “We clearly did not make the landing this time,” Lauren Lyons, one of SpaceX’s engineers, said on the broadcast. What is clear, though, is that SpaceX has fully flipped the perception of its sea landings. The company struggled with the first few attempts back in 2015, losing a number of rocket boosters at sea. Now, they’ve become another part of the company’s regular routine.
