SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket the morning of Jan. 17 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, earning viral online popularity thanks to video footage of the rocket’s landing-turned-explosion.
But what the “boom” doesn’t show is the mission’s success: SpaceX’s rocket launched the Jason-3 satellite into orbit, thus continuing the Ocean Surface Topography Mission begun in 1992.
The joint U.S.-European satellite mission tracks the rate of global sea level rise and helps forecast tropical storms and hurricanes. Jason-3 will orbit at 830 miles above Earth, monitoring 95 percent of the world’s ice-free oceans every 10 days, according to a statement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Jonathan Porta, a SpaceX fan and computer software engineer, trekked from San Francisco to Vandenberg to watch the launch in person. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to see, as the operation was shrouded in fog.
“I thought it was pretty awesome to be able to hear and feel it,” Porta said. “It was a lot louder and a lot stronger than I thought. It was a little unfortunate because you couldn’t see it because of the fog, and I was disappointed at first, but it was still pretty awesome to be able to see it and feel it.”
Porta said he admires SpaceX because the company isn’t afraid to take risks, as evidenced by the second—and more popular—aspect of Sunday’s launch.
SpaceX aimed to make history by landing the Falcon 9 on a drone ship, which waited among 12- to 15-foot ocean waves about 200 miles off the coast. If successful, the reusable launch system could have lived to fly again—and save the company millions of dollars.
It was SpaceX’s third attempt to make such a landing, and ultimately it became their third failure. According to an Instagram post from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the Falcon 9 landed vertically on the barge, but one of its four legs collapsed and caused the rocket to tip over—and explode.
Musk later tweeted: “Well, at least the pieces were bigger this time!”
Porta said the botched landing didn’t come as a shock for him.
“I wasn’t too disappointed that it tipped over, because I kind of thought that it might,” he said. “I think if they keep at it and keep refining their process, I think they’ll eventually get it.”
In December, SpaceX succeeded in landing a Falcon 9 on solid ground. Porta and his family watched the landing live.
“That was a pretty exciting moment because that was the first time it had ever been done,” Porta said. “I had reservations about the barge landing because there’s a lot more at play.”
However, a ground landing poses higher safety risks and requires special clearances from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Landing at sea would resolve those issues.
Musk tweeted that he is “optimistic” about future ship landing attempts. Porta said this type of persistence inspires him.
“I think SpaceX is a good representation of somebody putting their mind to something and being able to accomplish it,” Porta said. “I want to believe that that is possible, and SpaceX to me is a good example that it is.”
This article appears in Jan 21-28, 2016.