--- title: "SpaceX Rocket Crashes Into Ocean When Landing Fails" description: "During its latest Starlink satellite launch, SpaceX suffered a rare mishap: one of the boosters didn't stick its landing on the company's drone ship." date: "2021-02-16" modified: "2021-02-16" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-rocket-crashes-ocean-landing-fails" categories: - "Space" - "SpaceX" tags: - "elon musk" - "SpaceX" - "starlink" - "the digest" --- # SpaceX Rocket Crashes Into Ocean When Landing Fails ![During its latest Starlink satellite launch, SpaceX suffered a rare mishap: one of the boosters didn't stick its landing on the company's drone ship.]() *\Image: SpaceX\* ## Plop During its latest Starlink satellite launch on Monday, SpaceX suffered a rare mishap when one of the boosters launching the 60 broadband-beaming spacecraft didn't stick its landing on the whimsically-named drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You." Nine minutes after launch, the booster plopped into the ocean. It's unclear if the ship fell out of love with the booster prior to launch. "It does look like we did not land our booster on Of Course I Still Love You tonight," SpaceX manufacturing engineer Jessica Anderson could be heard saying during the launch coverage, as [quoted by *Space.com*](). "It is unfortunate that we did not recover this booster but our second stage is still on a nominal trajectory." Skip to around 28:00 in the video below to see the glow of the booster just missing its target off camera. https://youtu.be/L0dkyV09Zso ## Big Dip It's a rare failure for the Elon Musk-led space company. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched and landed 24 times consecutively prior to yesterday, as [*SpaceNews* points out](). The last failure before yesterday's dunk occurred in March of last year. The booster that landed in the ocean had successfully landed previously, and the trip marked its sixth trip to space since December 2019 on a cargo Dragon mission to the International Space Station. Monday's launch brings the number of active satellites in SpaceX's Starlink constellation up to 1,145. **READ MORE:** [SpaceX launches Starlink satellites, but booster landing fails]() \[*SpaceNews*\] **More on Starlink:** *[SpaceX Is Now Taking Starlink Preorders]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()