The recent launch of the CRS-5 to the International Space Station was a success but, as we saw last week, the landing of the first-stage Falcon 9 rocket didn’t go quite as well. At the time there wasn’t any footage of the landing attempt, only the successful liftoff, but the folks over at SpaceX know that they can’t keep a lid on that sort of thing forever.
That’s because we all love explosions, especially in the name of technological advancement and the Falcon 9’s collision with its landing barge definitely qualifies. To that end, SpaceX released a Vine video (embedded below) that shows just what happened in the final moments of the landing attempt.
In the few brief seconds above, you can see the Falcon coming in to land with a vertical orientation, more or less. As it descends, the rocket tilts in order to bring it closer to the landing zone. Unfortunately it’s a bit too far off and the lean is enough to tip the rocket at the low altitude it is hovering at and it crashes into the barge in an impressive fireball.
It’s still darned close for a landing that SpaceX was not expecting to have any significant success and for that, we salute them.
Source: SpaceX (Vine) via Ars Technica