Last SpaceX rocket landed hard enough to ‘accordion’ the engines
Don’t start thinking that landing a rocket’s first stage is routine just yet, as SpaceX has just posted video of its latest attempt. The Falcon 9 rocket successfully delivered two satellites to orbit, however when it returned to Earth everything did not go exactly to plan. The live video feed cut out so we weren’t sure exactly what happened, but now Elon Musk has tweeted video from afar showing the landing process. According to Musk, one of the engines cut out before it hit the deck of the droneship, causing a landing hard enough to “destroy the primary airframe and accordion the engines.” We’re guessing there’s not enough left for this one to join the trophy case, but that’s just how it happens in 2016, which Musk is calling “the year of experimentation.”
Looks like early liquid oxygen depletion caused engine shutdown just above the deck pic.twitter.com/Sa6uCkpknY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 17, 2016
Source: Elon Musk (Twitter), SpaceX
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