Musk: Falcon 9 Landing Failure Due to Throttle Valve Response
SpaceX founder and chief designer Elon Musk tweeted this evening that the failure of the Falcon 9 first stage to land successfully on a drone ship was due to a “slower than expected throttle valve response.” Another attempt will be made in two months, he added.
SpaceX made its second attempt to land a Falcon 9 first stage on its autonomous drone ship named Just Read the Instructions on Tuesday, April 14, 2015. The first stage had just successfully propelled the rocket’s second stage and the Dragon spacecraft full of supplies for the International Space Station into space. Musk wants to develop a reusable first stage that eventually will land back at its launch site. For now, he is testing landing on the drone ship. The first test earlier this year also was unsuccessful.
Video of the April 14 attempt shows the rocket descending vertically and almost making it to a safe landing on the drone ship, but it slews sideways in the final moments and crashes onto the deck. This evening Musk sent two tweets explaining what went wrong:
Cause of hard rocket landing confirmed as due to slower than expected throttle valve response. Next attempt in 2 months.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 18, 2015
While the rocket does look rather tall & tippy, a stable landing is no problem with proper throttle response https://t.co/B4Y6D4dpsc
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2015
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