The Christmas atmosphere in Elon Musk's home and offices has apparently been significantly damaged this year, after a small but very unfortunate "disaster" that occurred to him right in the midst of the holiday. We used ChatGPT to talk about the sad moment, and what to do next.
On Christmas Eve (Tuesday morning local time), SpaceX reported on social network X that the Falcon 9 accelerator, number B1058, "died" after a record number of launches – 19, the last of which occurred last Saturday. The launch itself was successful, but after that, the record-breaking missile met its grim end, after it flipped over during the journey back to the company's launch site.
In order to understand what happened, it is necessary to mention that SpaceX has not only missile landing pads on land, but also autonomous barges (flat ships) on which the missile can land in the middle of the ocean, so it is far from any population center. After landing, the barge sails towards land – and that's what happened earlier this week. But this time, according to the company's announcement, high winds and high waves caused the barge to wobble so dramatically that the missile lost its balance and fell.
During transport back to Port early this morning, the booster tipped over on the droneship due to high winds and waves. Newer Falcon boosters have upgraded landing legs with the capability to self-level and mitigate this type of issue
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 26, 2023
As mentioned, this fall occurred after a historic launch, in which this missile once again broke the record for repeated uses of the missile – 19. On this launch, he carried 23 satellites to the company's Internet service, Starlink, which successfully positioned themselves in Earth orbit. The company noted that beyond the record launches, this rocket has recorded other achievements – it has sent 2 astronauts into space (in 2020, and was the first commercial rocket to send astronauts into space, and the first American rocket launched into space since 2011) and no fewer than 860 satellites in its three and a half years of operation.
But at SpaceX, as at SpaceX, every disappointment is framed as an opportunity for learning and improvement — and this time, too, the company said it had already begun equipping other missiles with flexible landing legs to prevent them from falling from winds and waves, and that all nine engines of the destroyed rocket would be used to build new rockets that could break even the records achieved by their late father.
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