A piece of America’s space history now lies on the ocean floor. On the way back to Port Canaveral in central Florida, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 first stage booster tipped over and broke in two.
This particular booster, tail number B1058, experienced a fatal fall while returning from its record-breaking 19th mission. The rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on December 23 with 23 Starlink satellites on board. The booster successfully landed eight and a half minutes after launching onto the unmanned vessel Just Read the Instructions, which was stationed in the eastern Bahamas. SpaceX said in a statement on social media that it succumbed to “high winds and waves.”
“The new Falcon booster has upgraded landing legs with self-leveling capabilities to alleviate these types of issues,” the company said.
Kiko Deontieff, SpaceX’s vice president of launch, said in a separate post that while the remaining operational Falcon booster fleet is “mostly equipped,” B1058 will remain in place “in consideration of its age.” He added and explained in detail. The rocket “met its fate after encountering strong winds and waves that damaged the partially secured rocket.” [octo-grabber] It’s less than 100 miles from home. ”
![](http://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/20231226-B1058-examined.jpg)
“After experiencing a bad fall two Christmases ago, we came up with self-leveling legs that instantly equalize the load on the legs during landing,” Deontiev wrote about the first flight of the B1069 booster.
“One thing is for sure, we will make lemonade out of lemons and learn as much as we can from historic 1058 as we strive for aircraft-like operations,” he added.
American tail (number)
B1058 completed 19 missions and, in addition to serving as the flight leader of SpaceX’s Falcon fleet, also achieved the feat of launching astronauts from American soil for the first time since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.
Former NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley boarded the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for the first time on May 30, 2020, bound for the International Space Station. This historic mission, known as Demo 2, was the beginning of B1058’s illustrious mission career, which spanned a wide range of periods. Over 3 years.
To commemorate that groundbreaking flight, the booster was emblazoned with both official NASA logos, nicknamed “Meatball” and “Worm.” This was his first crewed flight in NASA’s commercial crew program and began a new chapter for his agency, purchasing commercial services to transport astronauts to and from orbiting outposts.
When the booster was being prepared for the Demo-2 mission, NASA and SpaceX believed the probability of crew loss (LOC) was 1 in 276, exceeding the program’s required threshold of 1 in 270. I judged it to be better.
Crew Dragon Endeavor docked with the ISS 19 hours after liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Demo-2 flight was the only crewed mission using B1058, but Space The booster supported one additional mission to the space station. . June 2020.
The booster’s other 17 flights include the first and third of SpaceX’s transporter missions, which carried a series of CubeSats and NanoSats into orbit, and 14 missions to send satellites into SpaceX’s Starlink Internet constellation. was.
Gone but not forgotten
On Tuesday, December 26, the remainder of B1058 was brought to Port Canaveral aboard the “Read the Instructions” ship. Photographers, reporters and onlookers gathered at the port entrance to get a glimpse of the booster wreckage.
Judging by the photos, most of the rocket’s engine section appeared to be intact, with three of the four landing legs sticking out into the air and remaining open following the booster’s landing.
![](http://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/20231226-Booster-Remains-2.jpg)
Looking over the remains of the booster, wires had been pulled out and scattered around the edge of the droneship, dragging water as the ship returned to the dock.
Although B1058 will never fly again, SpaceX intends to save what’s left and figure out what it can do.
“We plan to recover the engine and conduct life-leader testing of the remaining hardware,” said John Edwards, SpaceX’s vice president of launch vehicles and Falcon 9 product director. “This booster still has significant value. We won’t let it go to waste.”