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| Science & Technology | |
| Rough seas (> 10) cause SpaceX to lose Falcon Heavy center core. | |
| 2019-04-16 | |
| [The Verge] SpaceX successfully landed the center core of its Falcon Heavy rocket on a drone ship last week, but the vehicle accidentally fell into the ocean while in transit to the Florida coast. The company blamed the loss on choppy seas. “Over the weekend, due to rough sea conditions, SpaceX’s recovery team was unable to secure the center core booster for its return trip to Port Canaveral,” SpaceX said in a statement to The Verge. “As conditions worsened with eight to ten foot swells, the booster began to shift and ultimately was unable to remain upright. While we had hoped to bring the booster back intact, the safety of our team always takes precedence. We do not expect future missions to be impacted.”
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| Posted by:3dc |
| #5 May make it top heavy and in danger of losing the platform as well if it capsizes. Just my speculation but it makes sense they would prefer to lose the rocket rather than the whole enchilada. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2019-04-16 11:08 |
| #4 Excuse me, but hasn't SpaceX heard of tie-downs or maybe a framework that holds the booster on the platform? |
| Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 2019-04-16 10:05 |
| #3 Always a risk when you recover rocket parts at sea. It does suck, but itsn't the end of the world for SpaceX. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2019-04-16 09:24 |
| #2 Amazing rockets. |
| Posted by: Woodrow 2019-04-16 07:01 |
| #1 autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2019-04-16 06:37 |