SpaceX lost successfully landed the main stage of the rocket Falcon Heavy

Last week, a private aerospace company SpaceX successfully planted an elaborate central first stage super-heavy carrier rocket Falcon Heavy on robotic barge in the Atlantic Ocean. However, to save the step is still not possible. This stems from the turbulent water, according to the portal The Verge, citing the statement of the company.

"Over the weekend, a result of strong excitement of Atlantic water rescue team SpaceX was unable to return safe and sound to the port Canaveral main stage carrier Falcon Heavy. When the wave height of 2, 5-3 meters accelerator began to shift from a floating platform and could not resist, collapsed into the ocean. Although we were hoping to return it intact, the security of our team always comes first. On future missions this event will not affect ", - said the company.

The central stage of Falcon Heavy is a modernized version of the Falcon 9 medium - one of the three, which are used in the rocket superheavy class. Specifically, this stage in question, has successfully worked on April 12, was placed into geostationary orbit a new telecommunications satellite Arabsat 6A, owned by Saudi Accidents in the second in the history and at the same time, the first commercial launch of the Falcon Heavy. The first debut launch vehicle took place in February 2018. It was a test. With a payload in the form kindly provided by Elon Musk personal electric Tesla Roadster, driven by a dummy "Starman". Shortly after the launch last Friday, all three stages (the central and two lateral) successfully landed back. Lateral boosters committed synchronous landing at Cape Canaveral, the central - landed on a floating platform "Of Course I Still Love You". This is the first time that SpaceX was able to make a successful landing triple Spent boosters. During the first start of the lateral boosters successfully boarded, but missed the central level by the barges, and fell into the ocean.

Unfortunately, it seems that this time the ocean waters have decided to "bite" the best part of the Falcon Heavy. Generally in such cases on the barge it has a special robot Octagrabber, which is to steadily fix the accelerator after planting. But since the main stage Falcon Heavy is a modification of the Falcon 9 and connected to the two lateral boosters, its configuration is somewhat different from the usual stage of the Falcon 9, so the robot would not be able to fix it on the barge.

This summer, at the SpaceX launch scheduled another Falcon Heavy. It will use a completely new main stage and two have already flown on the side of the accelerator last week. The company notes that this time would like to use the robot. Perhaps by the time the company will have time to carry out its modernization. Otherwise, you must again rely on the absence of waves that can interfere with shipping.

Discuss the news may be in our Telegram-chat.