The Falcon 9 rocket launcher had a lot of bad luck during the Christmas holidays. During the transfer of the first stage from a recent mission, there was an accident, the machine capsized due to strong winds and waves and was almost completely destroyed. He served successfully for three and a half years. The company informed about it by X.
To make matters worse, it was a historical first stage with the designation B1058. On December 23, he made a record 19th flight and subsequent vertical landing on an autonomous platform in the Atlantic Ocean, more than 600 kilometers from the coast of Florida.
B1058 was not only a record holder among Falcon 9 rockets; it was even the very machine that sent the first American astronauts to the International Space Station in May 2020 after a nearly decade-long hiatus, giving NASA independence in that respect again.
Nevertheless, in December of the same year, B1058 flew to the ISS again, this time as part of an unmanned supply mission. Later, in January 2021, the rocket made its first ever launch as part of the SpaceX Transporter sharing program. It also recently launched into orbit private Slovak satellite Veronika.
She was missing an important upgrade
The Falcon 9 in question was transported to its home port of Port Canaveral aboard the Just Read the Instructions (JRTI) autonomous landing platform. The accident happened relatively close to the destination, less than 160 kilometers from the coast.
The reason was not only the weather, but also the age of the rocket. SpaceX is constantly improving its machines, and one of the important improvements in recent years has been the struts that fulfill the role of the landing gear.
In the past, there have been unwanted movements of the rocket on board the autonomous platform due to very bad weather. SpaceX therefore came up with a self-balancing system that distributes the strut load to make the machine more stable. However, due to its age, B1058 was one of the few SpaceX rockets that did not have this system.
Footage of the remains of rocket stage B1058 arriving at Port Canaveral:
Not even the so-called Octagrabber helped save the machine. It is an autonomous robot that is placed on a platform and after the rocket lands, it moves under the engine part of the rocket and secures the machine. He then tries to keep it in place during the journey home. It should be added that the Octagrabber returned to Cape Canaveral badly damaged.
SpaceX’s vice president for Falcon rockets, Jon Edwards, has already revealed that engineers will try to find a use for the remains of the historic machine. After all, this is still the “most experienced” hardware in Elon Musk’s fleet. Engineers will try to salvage the Merlin 1D engines (the machine has nine) and see if the remains of the rocket can be reused to gain more data and experience for the operation and development of other space rockets.
2023-12-30 15:45:14
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