SpaceX’s attempt to catch nose cone after launch fails again

SpaceX failed to catch both halves of the nose cone, or fairing, of the Falcon 9 rocket after a satellite launch on Wednesday. According to SpaceX, bad weather was the culprit. Previous attempts also failed.

During the live webcast of the Iridium-7 Next mission, SpaceX commentator John Insprucker said the special rescue vessel Mr. Steven had to deal with bad weather. The crew of the boat saw both halves of the fairing come down and end up in the sea. She was unable to catch the fairing in the special net, which is four times the size of the net used on the previous attempt.

Earlier attempts in May, March and February also failed, although there were no bad weather conditions at the time and SpaceX came close to a successful recovery in May. The fairing is basically the nose cone of the Falcon 9 rocket and serves as a sort of shield for carrying cargo. Like reusing the Falcon 9, repurposing the nosecones should bring down the cost of launches.

Wednesday’s launch was otherwise a success. SpaceX managed to launch ten Iridium satellites into orbit. The drone ship that was used to receive the first rocket stage also had to deal with bad weather, but this landing went well. The launch was the third to use the relatively new block 5 booster. Compared to previous boosters, the block 5 will be reused much more often.