When designing electronic components, sensors, and additional hardware meant to withstand harsh aerospace conditions, not every launch goes as planned.
Staying true to his word, Elon Musk delivered on his recent Twitter promise to highlight the long trial-and-error road to success. Each “epic explosion” is followed by a helpful caption detailing the specific cause of failure.
Releasing the slideshow of failures puts SpaceX’s success last week into perspective. SpaceX landed another Falcon 9 first stage booster after launching a U.S. Air Force X-37B space plane from Cape Canaveral.
“Long road to reusability of Falcon 9 primary boost stage…When upper stage & fairing also reusable, costs will drop by a factor >100,” says Musk on Twitter.
However, behind each recent triumph is a trail of missteps, failures, and miscalculations. Have a fun trip down SpaceX memory lane, and enjoy the blooper reel in the video below.
Filed Under: Aerospace + defense