Space

SpaceX Rocket Launch Update: Falcon 9 Rocket Fails To Land, Satellite Launch Successful

Michael Finn
First Posted: Jun 17, 2016 05:13 AM EDT

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has successfully boosted communication satellites into orbit, however, the booster did not land on the drone ship off the Florida coast. SpaceX has already confirmed the news.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at around 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time. It carried the EUTELSAT 117 West B as well as ABS-2A to geostationary transfer orbits. After the launch, the booster was expected to land on the drone barge named "Of Course I Still Love You", yet the video of the landing was cut off in the midst of flames and smoke.

According to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the Falcon 9 rocket experienced a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" while it attempts to land. Musk also confirmed that the thrust has been too low on one of those three landing engines. Following this incident, Musk stated that upgrades will definitely be made to the rockets to make up for the specific problem, and that they expect completion by the end of the year, RT reported.

SpaceX has successfully landed four of the Falcon 9 rockets that was launched, with one on land and three on the drone barge, but it is yet to reuse one of these in order to carry payloads into space. Early this month, Musk confirmed on Twitter about the company's plan to relaunch one of their rockets later this year, citing a possible launch date in September. If the plan pushes through, it would be the first relaunch for the rockets of the private space company.

The SpaceX has been successful in its attempt to land the Falcon 9 rockets, and ultimately achieving its first barge touch down in April. Surely, the company will be gathering relevant data from every phase of the launch to analyze what really happened and come up with ways to prevent the same incident from happening again, according to Daily Mail.

See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone

More on SCIENCEwr