SpaceX announced a successful satellite launch on Sunday — but failed an attempted sea-landing of a rocket booster, missing a goal that has repeatedly eluded the grasp of the Los Angeles-based rocket company.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been focused on mastering the art of returning booster rockets on Earth after a launch, in the hope this will enable the company to lower costs by re-using these rockets.
Sunday’s launch from Vandenberg Air Force base in California put a climate-change monitoring satellite, the Jason-3, in orbit around the North and South Poles. The satellite, sponsored by US and European agencies, will be used to monitor sea levels.
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