A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the company\u2019s Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station today, then turned around and nearly pulled off a soft landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n
The unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida\u2019s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 4:10 p.m. EDT (2010 GMT) today (April 14), sending Dragon to orbit on a resupply mission for NASA. SpaceX then attempted to bring the rocket\u2019s first stage back down for a vertical landing on an \u201cautonomous spaceport drone ship,\u201d in a highly anticipated reusable-rocket test.<\/p>\n
The unprecedented maneuver almost worked \u2014 but not quite.<\/p>\n
\u201cAscent successful. Dragon enroute to Space Station. Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival,\u201d SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via Twitter today. \u201cLooks like Falcon landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing,\u201d he added in another tweet.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s launch was originally scheduled for Monday (April 13) but was delayed a day by bad weather.<\/p>\n
Developing fully and rapidly reusable rockets is a key priority for SpaceX and Musk, who has said that such technology could slash the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100.<\/p>\n
SpaceX has now attempted the rocket landing twice. The previous try occurred on Jan. 10, during the last Dragon launch; the Falcon 9 first stage came down on target that day as well, but it hit the drone ship too hard and exploded on the deck.<\/p>\n
Musk said in the aftermath of the Jan. 10 attempt that the rocket stage\u2019s stabilizing \u201cgrid fins\u201d ran out of hydraulic fluid. SpaceX addressed that issue and also upgraded the drone ship \u2014 which is called \u201cJust Read the Instructions,\u201d after a sentient colony ship in the novels of sci-fi author Iain M. Banks \u2014 to be more stable in rough seas, company representatives have said.<\/p>\n
Musk is probably not particularly surprised or disappointed by today\u2019s near-miss. On Monday, he tweeted that the chances of landing success were less than 50 percent.<\/p>\n