SpaceX
A reusable Falcon 9 booster tipped over on droneship after its 19th SpaceX mission
On December 23, SpaceX launched 23 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The mission operations went according to the schedule and the first stage booster landed back on the droneship at 08:20 minutes after the liftoff.
With this mission, the booster completed its 19th first-stage booster mission, as it previously supported Crew Demo-2, ANASIS-11, CRS-21, Transporter-1, Transporter-3, and 14 other Starlink satellite launches.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, completing the first 19th launch and landing of a booster pic.twitter.com/WoVx0R0Esj
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 23, 2023
Earlier today, SpaceX shared new details about the Falcon 9 booster, revealing that the booster tipped over the droneship in the sea. The space transportation company said that the incident occurred due to high winds and waves.
A droneship is a modified barge that is outfitted with a large landing platform, station-keeping thrusters, and other equipment to enable Falcon booster landing at sea on high-velocity missions that cannot carry enough fuel to allow for a return-to-launch-site landing.
The droneship returns to a port and unloads the booster on the dock to send it to the SpaceX facility.
Falcon 9 First Stage Booster Landing Back on Droneship
The distance between the landing droneship location and the dock may sometimes create problems due to weather and sea conditions.
Therefore, SpaceX confirmed that the new Falcon boosters equip upgraded landing legs with the capability to self-level and mitigate such conditions during sea transportation.
According to SpaceX, this booster was Falcon fleet’s life-leading rocket and achieved orbit carrying 2 astronauts and more than 860 satellites. The booster carried 260+ metric tons of payload and serviced operations for 3.5 years.