The main stage from SpaceX’s successful launch of a NASA spacecraft intentionally missed its attempt to land on a barge bobbing in rough seas off Florida by 30 feet Wednesday but everything else seemed to work right. “Rocket soft landed in the ocean within 10m of target & nicely vertical! High probability of good droneship landing in non-stormy weather,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted a few minutes after his Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral. Seas were 25 feet so the decision was made to land the first stage in the water. Sticking the landing of the first stage was secondary to the primary goal of launching the spacecraft. It was the second attempt by SpaceX to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 so it can be reused. Musk says doing that reliably will save launch costs and make space more accessible. Meanwhile, the principal goal of the mission is going according to plan.
The rocket was used to launch the deep space probe DSCOVR to a point of neutral gravity between the earth and the sun. That’s about a million miles away and the spacecraft is on its way. “Primary mission on target. Spacecraft head[ed] towards the sun. All good there,” Musk tweeted. The trip is expected to take about 110 days. The spacecraft will monitor earth and space weather and give various industries a heads up about changing conditions.
