Updated: 4/15/15 18:48 EST: Added new video footage
Updated 4/15/15 12:47 EST: Added Vine video of ocean landing attempt
The first video footage of SpaceX’s latest rocket landing attempt has surfaced online, and despite being fairly grainy and low quality, the footage clearly shows that the company almost nailed it this time.
As you can see in the video, the rocket comes down with a bit of an angle, but manages to correct itself and go upright just before touching down. The video cuts out after that, but apparently the rocket toppled over shortly thereafter. According to Elon Musk, “excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing.”
Better footage will be available when SpaceX’s drone barge returns to port in a few days.
Updated: 4/14/15 16:45 EST: Added new information about launch and landing SpaceX has successfully delivered its Dragon spacecraft into orbit, but unfortunately its efforts to land and recover the stage one rocket have failed yet again. Details about the landing are scarce at this point, but SpaceX CEO tweeted that the attempt didn’t go smoothly:
Ascent successful. Dragon enroute to Space Station. Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2015
Looks like Falcon landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing pic.twitter.com/eJWzN6KSJa — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2015
Update 4/14/15 13:30 EST: Added weather info and new launch dates All systems are go for SpaceX’s second attempt at launch today, as weather conditions off the eastern coast of currently Florida look favorable. That said, it’s still possible that launch will be delayed again by last-minute changes in the weather, so keep your fingers crossed. Launch is scheduled for 4:10 PM ET, and to help you keep an eye on what’s going on, we’ve embedded an interactive weather forecast from Windyty below. You can also watch the livestream of the launch down below, and get updates on what’s happening via SpaceX’s Twitter stream.
Update 4/13/15: Added new launch date The launch was scrubbed for today, again due to unfavorable weather. Launch has been rescheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday, April 14) at 4:10 PM ET.
After calling off the last attempt due to inclement weather, SpaceX is ready to give its ambitious rocket launch/recovery plan another try today. Launch is scheduled for 4:33 PM ET, and you can watch the whole thing live right here.
Here’s how it’ll go down: A few minutes after takeoff, when SpaceX’s Dragon and Falcon 9 second stage are on their way to orbit, the first stage of the rocket will break off and execute a controlled reentry through earth’s atmosphere. Using thrusters to control the rocket’s speed and special wings to control its trajectory, SpaceX will try to touch down on an autonomous spaceport drone ship.
Last time, the landing attempt ended in a dramatic and fiery explosion — but SpaceX has made a number of improvements to both the rocket and the drone ship this time, which will hopefully make the landing go more smoothly. The drone ship has been upgraded to tolerate more powerful ocean swells, and the company’s new Falcon 9 rockets are equipped with special “X-Wings” on their noses to help stabilize them during reentry.
Flight conditions are looking promising today, but whether or not the launch/landing will be a success is still anybody’s guess. In previous attempts, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said that landing a rocket on a barge is like “trying to balance a rubber broomstick on your hand in the middle of a wind storm,” and that even under ideal conditions, there’s “probably not more than a 50 percent chance or less of landing it on the platform.”
The odds aren’t great, but if today’s ocean platform landing turns out to be a success, it’ll be a massive achievement for SpaceX, and a landmark moment for space travel in general. The ability to land and reuse rockets would drastically lower the cost of space travel, and likely usher in a new era of exploration and technological advancement.
Fingers crossed! And be sure to check back for updates — we’ll be keeping an eye on the mission as it unfolds.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.