SpaceX’s first attempt at recycling a used rocket engine by landing it on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean suffered a hard landing on Saturday. “Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future,” SpaceX chief Elon Musk tweeted. The rocket was launched early Saturday with a Dragon cargo spacecraft onboard, which successfully detached from the Falcon 9 Rocket and is expected to arrive at the International Space Station on Monday with supplies and experiments. Controllers then tried to have the rocket land on the barge, in order to recover its expensive engines and reuse them, but it landed roughly.
Read it at National GeographicArchive
SpaceX Suffers Hard Landing on Barge
‘CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR’