SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Elaborates on 'Dragon Capsule' - Falcon 9 Failed Attempt to International Space Station

On the back of the third failed attempt at launching the "Dragon Capsule" - Falcon 9 to the International Space Station, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk elaborated on the causes for this failure. They have been attempting to land the vessel on a Floating Barge since the turn of the year.

Musk had previously judged the chances of safe landing to be 50% and also commented that the landing of Falcon 9 was fine and as desired, but due to excess lateral velocity the vessel was tipped over.

Musk believes in reusing the parts that are ejected from the vessel during its launch, which would have a great bearing on the cost efficiency of the project & drastically save costs. Paul Huter, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics aerospace engineer commented that a barge can be used for the launch of the Rocket.  Since the barge in an ocean is in motion constantly Huter compared the launch against a conventional launch from ground which is relatively simples as the Rocket is static. Huter also identified the Atlantic Ocean as the ideal location from where to launch vessels in order to recover the parts ejected onto the sea.

However, despite these three initial failed attempts, Elon Musk has stated that the Dragon Capsule will be readied for a Fourth Attempt at a Launch, hoping to have learned and perfected the technology by then.

On the contrary Huter wishes to take a more cautious approach and would like to study various aspects that need to be taken into consideration; being mindful of the vast amount of resources it costs SpaceX for each failed launch. Although he is certain the SpaceX has the capability to eventually perfect the technology, he is wary of the pitfalls of trying to revolutionize space launch technology in too short span of time.