Yesterday (Tuesday, April 14, 2015), SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon capsule loaded with supplies for the International Space Station. Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will grapple the capsule on Friday and berth it to the ISS.
The launch was also the second try at landing the first stage Falcon 9 booster on a floating barge in the Atlantic. The first attempt in January was almost successful, but the steering fins ran out of hydraulic fluid causing a spectacular crash-and-burn of the booster.
This second attempt nearly made it as well. The booster found the barge, and actually seems to have landed vertically, but came in with a little bit too much sideways motion, tipping it over.
On Twitter, SpaceX linked to a pretty amazing Vine video of the landing:
The video stops just short of the booster heeling over and falling.
Mind you, this is still pretty good. Remember, no one has ever tried anything like this before during a launch, and almost everything went correctly. Clearly, of course, there are still a few things to be ironed out.
Elon Musk himself knows this. After the video came out, he tweeted this:
It’s always nice to treat oneself.
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