After one successful rocket landing, SpaceX has failed to land a second one this past Sunday. Will NASA drop the firm for Blue Origin? For years, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been able to move forward at Blue Origin’s expense. Though the levels are slightly different, Blue Origin has a lot of pros on their belt compared to SpaceX.
SpaceX Rocket Crashes and Explodes, Again
Technically speaking, this is SpaceX’s third failed attempt at a landing of a reusable rocket. The launch looked fine, but trouble started when the rocket landed on the droneship. The Falcon 9 landed upright, but only for a moment. Then it tipped over and exploded.
Elon Musk explained later that one of the legs on the rocket failed to lock, which caused the rocket to tip over completely. The man even posted a video of the landing on Instagram. Speculation would indicate that the reason why the leg didn’t lock was because there was ice built up from condensation. This condensation would have come from the heavy fog surrounding the rocket before it launched.
Mission Was a Success, Landing Was a Mess
The mission itself was successful. The launch was also a success, and the rocket even landed 4 feet of the droneship’s exact center. The video of the crash and explosion is almost funny in how dramatic it is, but Elon Musk maintains his faith in reusable rockets. According to its partnership with NASA, SpaceX is to commercialize space travel. Using reusable rockets would cut the cost of space travel by as much a factor of one hundred.
Blue Origin managed to launch and land a smaller reusable rocket. Although the scale was slightly smaller, it’s clear that Blue Origin has the right blueprint to develop perfectly functional reusable rockets. SpaceX also succeeded at landing their much larger Falcon 9 just this past December.
Will NASA Drop Elon Musk for Blue Origin?
NASA has a steady partnership with Airbus, Boeing, and SpaceX to develop commercial space travel. How many more crash landings will it take for NASA to rethink this partnership?
It doesn’t seem feasible to drop Elon Musk’s company just yet – they have big scale projects that have great potential for success. It’s much more likely that NASA brings in Blue Origin, headed by Jeff Bezos, to join the team. Two heads are better than one, even though Musk and Bezos are famous for butting them.
