WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Falcon 9 rocket is set to launch the Jason-3 satellite into orbit and attempt to land on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.
Later SpaceX reported that the first stage of the vehicle conducted hard landing at the drone ship.
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
First stage on target at droneship but looks like hard landing; broke landing leg. Primary mission remains nominal → https://t.co/tdni53IviI
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 17, 2016
Stage two propulsion remains nominal. Orbit insertion has occurred.
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 17, 2016
The satellite will examine the topography of the ocean floor to help study effects of climate change or human-induced changes on the ocean.
The mission is also expected to boost hurricane forecasting and marine navigation.
