Elon Musk explains Why Latest Rocket Landing attempt failed

SpaceX’s latest attempt to land a rocket in one piece at sea had failed and SpaceX Elon Musk has now revealed few details to explain the failure. The launch of Falcon 9 rocket was successful as it carried a cargo of supplies for astronauts living at the International Space Station, but the attempt to land it smoothly back on earth did not yield desired results.

Musk said slower than expected throttle valve response was responsible for hard landing of the rocket. SpaceX will make next landing attempt within two months.

The latest attempt was the third when SpaceX tried to land the rocket on a platform. The first attempt was made in January and that time the rocket hit the platform and lost control. The second attempt was made one month later when the rocket came close to the target, but hit the platform about 10 meters away from the surface of the drone.

The latest attempt was certainly better than previous ones, but ended up tipping over and exploding because of hitting the target too hard.

Musk said in a tweet, “Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival. Looks like Falcon landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing”.

SpaceX is working on rocket reuse technology to make it possible one day to use the rocket for space missions more than once. If SpaceX succeeds to build such a technology, cost of space access will significantly reduce. Building the rocket accounts for majority of the launch cost and the rocket flies only once. It is worth trying to develop rocket reusable technology as it can bring revolution in space missions.