CRS-6 Lifts Off, Falcon Lands, but Too Hard

Liftoff of CRS-6 / Image Credit: Stewart Money

After a Monday scrub, the second launch attempt for NASA /SpaceX’s CRS-6 resupply mission to the International Space Station found brilliant blue skies punctuated by occasional clouds and absolutely no technical problems as it counted down to T-0.

Lifting off the pad at SLC-40, the Falcon 9 V1.1 booster climbed high into the Florida sky before adjusting course to head Northeast to the space station’s 51.6 degree orbit. Ten minutes later, the Dragon spacecraft was released into Low Earth Orbit, to begin its pursuit of ISS.

If the clear weather, which came despite a 40% prediction of no go conditions, and after a shower soaked the Kennedy Space Center earlier in the day, was meant to be a sign of good luck, it extended only to Dragon.

Following stage separation, the first stage went through its return sequence as scripted, but Elon Musk soon shared the disappointing news via twitter:

Looks like Falcon landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing pic.twitter.com/eJWzN6KSJa

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2015

More to come