“Just follow the Instructions” is written on SpaceX’s landing pad in the ocean.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – After attempting to launch the reusable rocket a couple of times, SpaceX didn’t manage to land the Falcon 9 smoothly. The NASA-associated company has sixteen more launches scheduled for 2016.
Elon Musk’s space company managed to encounter any problem that could have been encountered, including an unidentified vehicle that trespassed the launching area at the second attempt of getting the reusable rocket in space.
But last week, the company succeeded in placing the communication satellite into orbit, and now there are a few Asian countries with better television, internet and mobile connection thanks to the relentless efforts of the team.
The five previous attempts at launching the rocket were affected by the liquid oxygen fuel that the spacecraft uses. The liquid was not cooling at the right temperature, so they had to replace it with something denser. Also, the bad weather played a significant role in the delay.
Even though the satellite is now up and running, the team didn’t complete the mission successfully because SpaceX didn’t manage to land the Falcon 9 smoothly. There is still a lot of work in the landing department.
The problem was that the rocket used a lot of fuel while carrying the satellite because it had to be placed in a high orbit, somewhere above the equator. Furthermore, the booster had to turn around and correct its course in order to be able to land on the drone ship.
The Falcon 9 eventually missed the boat, and the team believes that it fell somewhere in the ocean. They are still waiting for the telemetry from the Florida landing area in order to establish the exact current state of the rocket.
Even though the company managed to land one of its Falcon 9 rockets on land in December, there are still a lot of missions that require the recovery to be done at sea. This was one of them because the booster was obligated to travel to high orbit, consequentially coming down at a higher speed than usual.
SpaceX has 16 more launches scheduled for this year. The next mission on Musk’s list is a routine cargo delivery for the Space Station. The run is scheduled to take place in late March or, the beginning of April.
And even though SpaceX didn’t manage to land the Falcon 9 smoothly, the company will then try again to land the reusable rocket safely on the ocean platform.
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