It's first attempt was a failure, but in hopes of creating a more sustainable spaceflight industry, private spaceflight company SpaceX is going to try landing one of their rockets again. And this time you can watch the mission live, no delays and no interruptions like before.
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Though SpaceX is a private spaceflight company, their research and rockets are valuable to space agencies all over the world because their autonomy allows them to pursue pricey endeavors that other agencies simply cannot. This current mission, CRS6, is one that meets much anticipation, as its implications could mean millions of dollars in savings for many space agencies like NASA. The cost of spaceflight for the average mission is astronomical due to the fact that most parts are disposable, left in space after merely one launch. But SpaceX plans to change that. With its new mission, SpaceX will try to retrieve the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket by landing it on a platform in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. But it's not the first time the independent spaceflight company has tried something of this sort.
In its last attempt, SpaceX had some fatal errors that led to a crash landing of epic proportions. Initial weather conditions continued to delay the launch, and when the rocket was on its return the fourteen-story obelisk of SpaceX's Falcon 9 smashed into the platform bursting into flames, which founder Elon Musk would later reveal was because it ran out of hydraulic fluid on its return flight home. This time they have made some changes.
"Since our last landing attempt, the drone ship has been upgraded to tolerate more powerful ocean swells, however, weather at the landing site is looking significantly better this time" spokespersons for SpaceX say. "After Dragon and Falcon 9's second stage are on their way to orbit, the first stage will execute a controlled reentry through Earth's atmosphere, targeting touchdown on an autonomous spaceport drone ship approximately nine minutes after launch."
The drone, merely the size of a single football field, may seem to complicate things, but in reality SpaceX is fairly confident that they have learned from their research and the errors of past attempts. While it may seem like a needle-in-a-haystack situation, some leaders at SpaceX are boasting that the odds of a successful landing are between 75 and 80 percent, if all goes to plan. Here's to hoping that weather and the whims of fate allow for a soft touchdown and a landing that's on-target.
