On Wednesday, we witnessed a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch a Dragon capsule destined for the International Space Station to orbit, but it just missed its land landing after a bad case of the spins.
Now, SpaceX head honcho Elon Musk has shared some clearer video of what, exactly, happened and what went wrong on the Falcon’s journey back to Earth.
Remarkably, the rocket stabilized and was able to land in water as opposed to crashing and possibly exploding on land.
The cause of the rocket’s spin, according to Musk, was a stalling out of one of the rocket’s “grid fin hydraulic pump.”
If what Musk says proves true, the rocket is certainly wet but not much worse for the wear after the landing and will be recovered which is pretty damn impressive.
As for the Dragon capsule, everything looks good to go as SpaceX is reuses a capsule that previously sent supplies to the space station in February 2017. So, despite the splashdown, you could still call it a pretty good day for the space company.
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