SpaceX launches two satellites, but drone ship landing is unsuccessful
SpaceX launched two commercial satellites Wednesday morning, but its Falcon 9 rocket was lost before it could attempt to land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Hawthorne-based space company’s rocket launched at 7:29 a.m. PDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
As part of the mission, SpaceX was hoping to land the rocket’s first-stage booster on the drone ship, though the company had warned that the high velocity and reentry heat the rocket would experience because of its high-orbit delivery would make it difficult to stick the landing.
Shortly after the launch, SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted: “Ascent phase & satellites look good, but booster rocket had a [rapid unscheduled disassembly] on droneship.â€
He later tweeted: “Upgrades underway to enable rocket to compensate for a thrust shortfall on one of the three landing engines. Probably get there end of year.â€
If the touchdown had been successful, it would have marked the company’s fourth sea landing and its fifth overall. SpaceX landed a first stage on land in December.
The Falcon 9 did successfully deploy two satellites: Eutelsat 117 West B, which is to provide video for telecommunications and government services to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America; and ABS-2A, which is to provide video and other services to South Asia, Southeast Asia, Russia, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa.
It was the company’s second dual-satellite launch. The first occurred in March 2015.
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UPDATES:
8:19 a.m.: This article has been updated with a comment from Elon Musk.
8:14 a.m.: This article has been updated with a comment from Elon Musk.
8:04 a.m.: This article has been was updated with details of the launch.
This article was originally published at 2:59 a.m.
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