SpaceX has released dramatic photographs and Vine video of a Falcon 9 first-stage booster rock crashing and exploding during an attempted landing on a float barge.
Most aspects of the test flight, including successful delivery of thousands of pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station (ISS), went off without a hitch. Mission engineers successfully guided the first-stage booster during re-entry through the atmosphere, but were unable to control speed or final inclination. The vehicle landed on the platform where it was targeted to touch down. However, the landing shattered the booster, causing a fireball that engulfed the area.
"Close, but no cigar. This time," SpaceX wrote in a test description included with the Vine post of the dramatic explosion.
The booster which failed on landing was part of a Falcon 9 rocket, and early analysis suggests that fins used for navigation ran out of hydraulic fluid just before landing.
The Falcon 9 first stage is 224 feet long, and is seen in the Vine, approaching the platform at an angle around 45 degrees. Engines fire, attempting to compensate for the failed fin system. This correction comes too late, however, and the booster impacts on the landing pad, exploding in a brilliant fireball.
The landing platform, just 300 feet long by 170 feet wide (with wings extended) did not suffer serious damage during the explosion, although some work will need to be performed before the next attempted landing.
SpaceX engineers originally believed cameras would not have recorded images from the crash, due to darkness.
Reusable rockets could greatly reduce the costs to reach space, potentially leading to rapid colonization and industrialization of space. SpaceX has successfully soft-landed two Falcon 9 boosters on water, but this latest test was the first to attempt a landing on a floating platform. Although the booster exploded when it struck the landing pad, the private space development company was able to show that they were capable of guiding a booster from Earth orbit down to a target roughly the size of a football field. This in itself is a great advance for the development of a fully-reusable rocket system.
Musk made light of the accident, which he labeled full RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly), in the weeks leading up to the next test for the space development company he founded.
"Next rocket landing on drone ship in 2 to 3 weeks w way more hydraulic fluid. At least it shd explode for a diff reason," Musk tweeted on January 16, 2015.
