‘World’s first recycled flight’: SpaceX release ‘lost’ footage of Falcon 9 landing (VIDEO)
Never-before-seen footage of last week’s SpaceX recycled rocket landing has been released, days after the company’s milestone mission was tarnished by a live feed malfunction at the last minute.
Last week, the US space company completed an SES-10 satellite delivery mission using a Falcon 9 rocket recycled from a previous jaunt into orbit back in April 2016.
However, the recovered rocket’s spectacular touchdown – hyped as a major milestone for the space industry – was unexpectedly missed by a camera glitch on the SpaceX landing pad in the Atlantic Ocean.
Falcon 9 first stage has landed on Of Course I Still Love You — world’s first reflight of an orbital class rocket.
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 30, 2017
With the Falcon 9 seconds away from making history on the ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ ocean droneship, SpaceX online presenters were forced to inform viewers about the disappointing hiccup.
READ MORE: ‘Rapid unscheduled disassembly’: SpaceX releases video of Falcon 9 crash-landing
“Looks like we may not have continuous video feed from the droneship right now… so just stay put and we’re going to let you know [about the landing],” said SpaceX engineer, Tom Praderio.
READ MORE: SpaceX Falcon-9 successfully launches & lands, could mark ‘low-cost’ era of space travel
When the feed kicked back in, the Falcon 9 rocket was standing upright and intact on the launch pad. It led to some tongue in cheek comment online that the landing had been a conjurer’s trick.
I know the feed cut out during landing, but it's definitely the same SpaceX rocket. I signed it before takeoff just to be sure pic.twitter.com/XXciw0Yyif
— Ross 🐼 Miller (@ohnorosco) March 30, 2017
Watching the @spacex live feed cut back to the barge, now with a rocket standing on it, felt like watching a magician pull a trick #falcon9
— Jonathan Aguilar (@AggleDetector) March 30, 2017
Landing successful (tho live coverage cut out) #spacex#ses10pic.twitter.com/fBAfifhPi8
— Marcia Smith (@SpcPlcyOnline) March 30, 2017
@SpaceX@elonmusk Hey, will y'all be posting videos of the landing at some point? Live feed cut out, but I'm pretty sure you were still recording...
— Alinsa \m/ ShouldWrk (@alinsa) March 31, 2017
SpaceX has now set the record straight, however, with an Instagram video showing the full, firey landing.
