{"id":18084,"date":"2019-04-15T21:41:54","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T13:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacexs-falcon-heavy-center-core-booster-falls-over-on-ship-amid-heavy-seas\/"},"modified":"2019-04-15T21:41:54","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T13:41:54","slug":"spacexs-falcon-heavy-center-core-booster-falls-over-on-ship-amid-heavy-seas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacexs-falcon-heavy-center-core-booster-falls-over-on-ship-amid-heavy-seas\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy center core booster falls over on ship amid heavy seas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Falcon Heavy center core booster lands on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. (SpaceX via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mother Nature has splashed cold water over SpaceX\u2019s triumphant triple booster landing in the wake of last week\u2019s Falcon Heavy rocket launch. Literally.<\/p>\n

After sending the Arabsat-6 telecommunications satellite on the first leg of its journey to geostationary orbit on Thursday, the three first-stage rocket cores went their separate ways.<\/p>\n

Two side boosters touched down safely at SpaceX\u2019s Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, not far from their launch pad. The center core landed on a drone ship christened \u201cOf Course I Still Love You,\u201d stationed several hundred miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

The center core\u2019s landing was a first. During the Falcon Heavy\u2019s maiden launch in February 2018, the center core missed its target.<\/p>\n

SpaceX was planning to reuse all three cores \u2014 as well as the two halves of the rocket\u2019s nose cone, or fairing \u2014 on future launches. Unfortunately, the center core didn\u2019t make the trip back to shore intact. Today SpaceX explained why in a statement:<\/p>\n

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\u201cOver the weekend, due to rough sea conditions, SpaceX\u2019s recovery team was unable to secure the center core booster for its return trip to Port Canaveral. As conditions worsened with eight- to ten-foot swells, the booster began to shift and ultimately was unable to remain upright. While we had hoped to bring the booster back intact, the safety of our team always takes precedence. We do not expect future missions to be impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

SpaceX usually employs a system known as the \u201cOctagrabber\u201d to secure recovered Falcon 9 boosters on the drone ship\u2019s deck, but that system couldn\u2019t be used this time around because the Falcon Heavy core booster had a different mechanical interface. The company plans to use the system for the next Falcon Heavy mission, which could lift off as soon as June.<\/p>\n

In other SpaceX news:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  • NASA has selected SpaceX to provide launch services for the agency\u2019s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, which aims to demonstrate the capability to deflect an asteroid by hitting it with a spacecraft at high speed. SpaceX will get about $69 million for the 2021 launch on a Falcon 9 rocket. In a statement, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the award \u201cunderscores NASA\u2019s confidence in Falcon 9\u2019s capability to perform critical science missions while providing the best launch value in the industry.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • The Wall Street Journal quoted Shotwell as expressing ambivalence about SpaceX\u2019s plan to send thousands of satellites into low Earth orbit for global internet access. \u201cIt\u2019s worthy of the hard thought and the hard work we\u2019re putting into it. But is it feasible with our approach or not? It\u2019s still [to be determined],\u201d the Journal quoted her as saying in a February interview. Shotwell has expressed similar sentiments about the plan\u2019s financial prospects going back as far as 2015.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Update for 11:30 a.m. PT April 18:<\/strong> The damage to the core booster could be clearly seen when it was brought back to shore. But in a tweet, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the booster\u2019s Merlin \u201cengines seem ok, pending inspection.\u201d Here are some views of the booster on its recovery ship:<\/p>\n