SpaceX came maddeningly close to successfully landing a rocket back on a solid surface after it sent a cargo capsule up toward the International Space Station (ISS).
The company reported they were able to land the Falcon 9 rocket on their ocean-based drone ship, but "excess lateral velocity" tipped the rocket over after the fact. This was the sixth ISS resupply mission SpaceX has carried out for NASA and the third time they have tried to re-land their Falcon 9 rocket after launch.
The company said it will get its next opportunity in June.
SpaceX posted a short video of the rocket's landing attempt to Twitter. The rocket's bottom end seems to wobble a bit, but then also seems to recover for the landing. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk later tweeted the landing was "too hard for survival."
But the Falcon 9 rocket's launch detachment with the Dragon space capsule went as planned and crewmembers aboard the ISS should get their cargo by week's end.
"Five years ago this week, President Obama toured the same SpaceX launch pad used today to send supplies, research and technology development to the ISS," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a press release. "Back then, SpaceX hadn't even made its first orbital flight. Today, it's making regular flights to the space station and is one of two American companies, along with The Boeing Company, that will return the ability to launch NASA astronauts to the ISS from U.S. soil and land then back in the United States. That's a lot of progress in the last five years, with even more to come in the next five."
SpaceX is hoping to drastically reduce the cost of these resupply missions by one day landing their rockets back on solid ground for reuse.
"If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred," Musk said in a statement. "A fully reusable vehicle has never been done before. That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize access to space."