SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Falls Over and Explodes After Landing on a Drone Ship

Falcon lands on droneship, but the lockout collet doesn’t latch on one the four legs, causing it to tip over post landing. Root cause may have been ice buildup due to condensation from heavy fog at liftoff.

A video posted by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Jan 17, 2016 at 7:07pm PST

On January 17, 2016, SpaceX sucessfully landed their Falcon 9 rocket on a drone ship, but unfortunately the rocket failed to lock to the ship after touching down. This caused the Falcon to fall over after landing, after which it exploded into flames.

The goal of the Falcon 9 is to serve as a reusable launch vehicle for satellites and the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. They recently landed a Falcon 9 on land, but they have yet to successfully land one of the rockets on a drone ship.

First stage approaches center of landing droneship in Pacific pic.twitter.com/lI3q6LnwVP

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 18, 2016

Well, at least the pieces were bigger this time! Won’t be last RUD, but am optimistic about upcoming ship landing. pic.twitter.com/w007TccANJ

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 17, 2016

Out at sea for tomorrow’s launch and landing attempt pic.twitter.com/9LMsj6qryI

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 17, 2016