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Check out this Vine of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket exploding on an ocean landing pad

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Over the weekend, SpaceX made its first attempt at landing a reusable Falcon 9 rocket on an autonomous drone barge floating in the Atlantic. Unfortunately, not everything went perfectly. CEO Elon Musk tweeted the following on Tuesday:

“Landed hard” is a bit of an understatement, though. Earlier today, Musk posted a Vine video of the rocket exploding on the landing pad just before it touched down.

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According to Musk, the reason the landing didn’t go as planned was that the rocket’s fins — a newly-added feature designed to steer the rocket into position as it comes back down to Earth — ran out of hydraulic fluid just before the landing, making them about “10% off.”

It wasn’t quite what SpaceX was hoping for, but even so, the fact that it was able to come this close to a successful ocean landing is still rather impressive. Lessons learned from this botched trial will help the company make critical adjustments for the next launch, which is currently planned for a yet-to-be-determined date in February.

If SpaceX can successfully land and recover a rocket, it will have huge implications for the future of space travel. Stay tuned — the next attempt is planned for about 2 or 3 weeks from now.

Drew Prindle
Drew Prindle
Former Senior Editor, Features
Drew Prindle is an award-winning writer, editor, and storyteller who currently serves as Senior Features Editor for Digital…
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