New
#231
What a spectacular show!
Source: The middle booster of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket failed to land on its drone shipThough the Falcon Heavy’s outer cores successfully landed after launch this afternoon, the middle core of SpaceX’s huge rocket missed the drone ship where it was supposed to land, a source tells The Verge. SpaceX later confirmed The Verge’s reporting in a press conference.
The center core was only able to relight one of the three engines necessary to land, and so it hit the water at 300 miles per hour. Two engines on the drone ship were taken out when it crashed, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a press call after the rocket launch.
It’s a small hiccup in an otherwise successful first flight. The Falcon Heavy rocket took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 3:45PM ET on Wednesday and made a beautiful arc to space. About two and a half minutes after liftoff, the two outer boosters of the rocket broke away and returned to Earth. The pair then touched down just seconds apart on SpaceX’s two ground landing pads at the Cape called Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2.
At about three minutes after liftoff, the center core broke away from the upper stage — the top portion of the rocket that is carrying the Falcon Heavy’s payload, Musk’s Tesla Roadster. It then attempted to land on SpaceX’s drone ship, but live video of the landing stalled just before the core was slated to make its touchdown. “We lost the center core,” someone said on a separate, unlisted live stream of the launch.
Audio: “We lost the center core” #FalconHeavy @SpaceX pic.twitter.com/OaJhMa7f2U
— Drew King (@King_Drew16) February 6, 2018
Yep well it just amazes me how they get the stages to land as they do that is some technology.
It sure is, I posted a link to some more pix of the car being readied for the launch pod back on 7F
Updates:
(Feb. 11:) A Russian Soyuz rocket will launch the 69th Progress cargo delivery ship to the International Space Station at 3:58 a.m. EST (0858 GMT). The Progress spacecraft is expected to arrive at the space station at 7:24 a.m. EST (1224 GMT).
(Feb. 15:) A partial solar eclipse will be visible in southern South America, the Pacific, the Atlantic and Antarctica. [Solar Eclipse Guide 2018: When, Where & How to See Them]
(Feb. 17:) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Paz satellite for Hisdesat of Madrid, Spain from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 9:22 a.m. EST (1422 GMT). [Watch Live]
(Feb. 22:) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Hispasat 30W-6 communications satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida. [Watch Live]
(March 13:) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Dragon CRS-14 spacecraft on a cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. [Watch Live]
(March 18:) A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch 10 Iridium Next satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 11:19 a.m. EDT (1519 GMT).