SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket suffered max damage due to high speed. The booster rocket had successfully been launched on May 6 for a mission to position a Japanese communications satellite.
During its landing target on orbit, three engines of the booster rocket went on fire while trying to decrease the speed in three seconds.
On May 6, the Falcon 9 rocket had the mission of positioning a Japanese communications satellite 22,000 miles into the orbit. The altitude of the space station is about 250 miles away, which means that the rocket required extra speed to get to its target.
The Falcon 9 rocket reached 5,200 mph, which is to say 1,5 miles per second. SpaceX stated that the rocket experienced much more heat during its return and this is caused the fire in the three engines.
Because of the significant damage, SpaceX considers that there will be no opportunity for the Falcon 9 to be launched into orbit again. The previous mission was successfully accomplished by the rocket, even though it was a challenging one due to the long distance the rocket had to travel.
According to Elon Musk’s statements, the Falcon 9 will help the company to evaluate and calculate the flight-worthiness of boosters. On his Twitter account, Musk wrote that the most recent rocket suffered important damages while decreasing high velocity. Also, he has said that the rocket will be used as a ground test model to verify other’s good conditions.
After getting to an altitude of 75-miles , the rocket push into the atmosphere and three of its nine engines caught fire in an attempt to decrease speed. The rocket went from 441 mph to 134 mph, which caused the fire in the engines.
Next missions
SpaceX’s next mission is scheduled for May 26. This time, SpaceX will try to put on orbit the Thaicom-8 communications satellite on another high-speed ocean landing.
In June, two more missions of communications satellites could take place.
Source: ABC News