Attempted landing of rocket on drone ship at sea is a disaster

ONE OF the main difficulties surrounding the launch of satellites into space is the cost of the booster rocket and the potential damage that can be done when it returns to earth.

Billionaire Elon Musk has made it one of his life’s works to introduce re-usable rockets by guiding them back to a safe landing onto a sea based platform known as a drone ship.

On Sunday January 17, the Falcon 9 rocket launched from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base and placed a weather satellite into space and was then guided back to the drone ship floating in the pacific. 

The touchdown was perfect but one of the latches did not correctly lock onto a leg and the rocket toppled over with catastrophic consequences as was captured on camera.

When the concept finally becomes reality, there will be a significant saving in cost the cost of putting satellites into space.