Space is hard, and humility in the face of major failures can be just as hard. But SpaceX founder Elon Musk nailed both on Sunday when he gave us a new look at the almost-a-complete-success landing of the Falcon 9 rocket on a drone ship floating in the Pacific Ocean.
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Posting a video on Instagram, Musk showed us a new view of the rocket successfully landing on its platform and then slowly falling over on its side and exploding into flames.
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
Although the launch and satellite deployment came off without a hitch, this was SpaceX's third failed landing of the rocket stage at sea.
But what the video really reveals is not a failure but just another tiny step toward SpaceX's ultimate goal of using efficient re-entry rockets that will soon make space missions more affordable.
And in case there was any doubt about the importance of the feat, even Jeff Bezos, the founder of space company Blue Origin, dropped his previous competitive snark and offered Musk his sincere congratulations.
Impressive launch and @SpaceX will soon make Falcon 9 landings routine – so good for space! Kudos SpaceX!— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) January 17, 2016
Musk confirmed that there were no hard feelings over their previous tiff and responded publicly with a prompt "Thanks Jeff."
@JeffBezos @SpaceX Thanks Jeff— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 18, 2016