SpaceX attempt to land the Falcon 9 rocket first stage on an autonomous spaceport drone ship on Saturday Jan. 10 mission to ISS in ...
While the empty first stage rocket made it to the drone ship, it landed hard. Grid fins used for precision targeting ran out of hydraulic fluid right before landing but worked extremely well from hypersonic velocity to subsonic.
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| F9 first stage debris being removed |
The F9 fins only work for 4 mins and were short of ~10% hydraulic fluid.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said next month flight will have 50% more hydraulic fluid, giving plenty of margin for the landing attempt.
The autonmous landing ship will have to replace some of the damaged support equipment on the deck.
