3/4/16 ANOTHER SpaceX rocket landing fails, Falcon 9 crashes on droneship (video in link)

[link to www.theverge.com]


SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket into space this afternoon, but — as expected — failed to land the vehicle on a drone ship at sea afterward. CEO Elon Musk said the rocket "landed hard" on the drone ship. The mission requirements made a successful landing unlikely.

"The rocket had to send a heavy satellite into a high orbit"

This was SpaceX's fourth attempt to land the Falcon 9 post-launch on an autonomous drone ship floating in the ocean. All of the previous sea landings failed too, though the third attempt came very close. The company had low hopes of a successful landing from the start of this mission, since the rocket had to send a heavy satellite into a high orbit. That requires a lot of fuel for the launch itself, so there wasn't much fuel left for the rocket's return to Earth and powered landing.