SpaceX misses chance at second successful rocket landing by Jessica Orwig on Jan 17, 2016, 2:11 PM On Sunday afternoon, SpaceX attempted to land the first stage of its two-stage rocket for a second time in a row, but the attempt was unsuccessful. "It looks like we came in on target as we planned, but slightly harder landing. One of the landing legs may have broken on touch down," a SpaceX spokesperson just announced. "Unfortuantley we are not standing upright on a drone ship." After boosting the second stage and its cargo to space, the first stage booster turned itself around for re-entry performing a series of engine burns to slow down as grid fins and GPS tracking helped guide the rocket to the drone ship. This second attempt at two successful landings in a row would have proven that SpaceX's first rocket landing — performed on Dec. 21 of last year — wasn't luck. Now, it's back to the drawing board. Sunday's landing attempt was more difficult because it happened on a floating target: One of SpaceX's un-crewed autonomous drone ships located in the Pacific, 186 miles south of the launch site. 
Last year, SpaceX attempted this same landing twice, and did not succeed in retrieving the rocket. Both times the first stage exploded after reaching the platform. Elon Musk, owner and founder of SpaceX, said that landing rockets on these drone ships is critical for high-velocity missions, which refer to mainly commercial satellite missions, wherein the Falcon 9 has to transport its payload higher above Earth's surface than it would on a cargo transport mission to the International Space Station, for example. Therefore, we can expect to see more rocket landing attempts like this in the future. CHECK OUT: NASA is upping the competition on SpaceX SEE ALSO: 9 ways Elon Musk has already upended the spaceflight industry
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