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By Marc Cook
| April 16, 2019
The first successful SpaceX trade mission went almost smoothly last week. Almost. Despite landing safely on a drone off the coast of Florida, one of the three propellers was lost before returning to the mainland.
By design, the two outboard thrusters have returned safely, while the larger central thruster has successfully landed on an unmanned vessel in the Atlantic. But the high seas dropped the platform booster before the assembly could reach the dock. Normally, when a thruster lands on the floating platform, it is secured by the so-called Octagrabber. In this case, however, changes to the design of the Falcon 9 deck prevented its use. SpaceX says it will make changes to the acquisition card so future missions can use it.
According to SpaceX, "because of the rough seas, SpaceX's recovery team has not been able to secure the recall of the center for its return to Port Canaveral." When conditions have deteriorated With waves of 8 to 10 feet, the reminder we had hoped to bring back the return device intact, but the safety of our team always takes precedence.We do not expect future missions will be affected. "
On Twitter, Elon Musk said enigmatically that the recall may not be a total loss. "The engines seem to be going well, while waiting for the inspection," he said. Upgrades of Falcon 9 rockets, called Falcon Heavy by three, are supposed to make them reusable up to 10 times with a modest job of retouching between flights.
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