For the first time, all three first-stage boosters landed upright following Thursday's launch of the company's Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket in use.
At the time of the accident, the stage was being brought back to Port Canaveral by the autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) "Of Course I Still Love You".
"As conditions worsened with eight to ten-foot swells, the booster began to shift and ultimately was unable to remain upright". The recovery of the center core of the Falcon Heavy this time came after the first flight failed as that central core missed the landing ship entirely. But company sources say that the Octograbber doesn't work on the Falcon Heavy because it has different interfaces that the robot isn't now created to grapple, requiring the use of personnel that could not safely operate in the heavy seas. "The safety of our team always takes precedence".
SpaceX was planning to reuse all three cores - as well as the two halves of the rocket's nose cone, or fairing - on future launches. 'Three for three boosters today for the Falcon Heavy'.
SpaceX aced a triple-landing of its Falcon Heavy booster rockets after launching its first-ever commercial cargo into orbit last week. The fairings splashed down in the ocean as well, and were quickly scooped up by SpaceX, so it seems the company is confident it can negate the effects of seawater on at least some of its pricey rocket parts.
In its first flight, Elon Musk sent a Tesla Roadster to orbit around the sun a year ago.
The next Falcon Heavy launch with military payloads is expected no earlier than June, the Air Force confirmed via Twitter on Monday.
Despite the center core booster issue, the Falcon Heavy successfully launched its first paid mission and deployed Arabsat-6A, a communications satellite that will provide internet services to people who live in Africa, some parts of Europe, and the Middle East. "We do not expect future missions to be impacted", SpaceX told The Verge. STP-2 is now scheduled to lift off from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A in June and should mark the third time the massive FH takes to the skies.
