Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO, Elon Musk, skepticism were confirmed last week when SpaceX narrowly failed to successfully land a rocket back on earth on a barge at sea. Wall Street Journal’s, Monika Auger, reports that skepticism had already been expressed in the mission turning out to be a success as expected as the technology is still in its infancy.
The rocket lifted up as expected, on a routine mission to resupply the International Space Station but what happened next is what SpaceX engineers will be looking to address before the next mission. SpaceX had tried to land the first section of the rocket that is 14 stories, but came down too hard although there was no cigar this time according to Musk.
“About 10 minutes after liftoff SpaceX tried to guide the first stage of the Falcon 9 back to land on a barge on the Atlantic ocean while the rocket made it to the platform it landed hard. [..] In the days before the test landing, SpaceX had repeatedly stressed that it considered that part of Saturday’s mission as an experiment with low odds for success,” said Mrs. Auger.
Vice President of Missan Assurance SpaceX, Hans Koenigsmann, conveyed to press that Musk had already put a 50% probability of success, in the landing of the booster as it was the first time that the same was being tried. On a tweet, Musk said that a floating landing pad had been positioned at sea for the booster to land on. The booster landed hard on the pad but did not cause any flames.
Once a booster has vaulted a rocket to space, it normally falls back to the earth as waste. Something that the Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO is trying to change with the new landing format. Musk has always maintained that developing reusable rockets could cut launch costs to one-hundredth of what it currently is, an endeavor that will considerably reduce space travel costs.
“This is SpaceX’s fifth cargo mission to the ISS for NASA. The Dragon capsule is scheduled to deliver the more than 5000 pounds of supplies and equipment to the space station on Monday,” said Mrs. Auger.
This will be the first cargo delivery to the International Space Station since an orbital resupply rocket exploded on launch in 2014. SpaceX has also stated that the attempted landing test was the first in a series, intended to make Falcon 9 first stage reusable.
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