It’s been a busy time for Elon Musk and SpaceX, lately. Earlier this week, the company launched 64 satellites (and a art project known as the Orbital Reflector) in what was the largest rideshare mission in history. The mission was also historic because it involved a booster making its third successful landing. And this was after Musk released more details about his proposed BFR, henceforth known as the “Starship”

And earlier today (Wednesday Dec. 5th), SpaceX launched its sixteenth Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-16) to the International Space Station (ISS). While the deployment of the Dragon spacecraft was successful, the first stage booster did not make it back to the landing pad. After suffering from an apparent malfunction in one of its grid fins, the booster fell into the sea – but remained intact and will be retrieved.

The mission lifted off at 10:16 am PST (01:16 p.m. EST), from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Dragon spacecraft, which had previously been used for the CRS-10 mission in February of 2017, carried more than 2,540 kg (5,600 lbs) of supplies and payloads. Among these were materials that are critical to supporting the ongoing research and investigations aboard the ISS.

As with previous launches, the company began live-streaming the launch via webcast. About seven minutes after liftoff, the second stage and Dragon spacecraft separated from the Falcon 9’s first stage and proceeded to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). At 10:26 am PST (01:26 pm EST), SpaceX announced “Second stage engine burn complete. Dragon confirmed in good orbit,” followed shortly thereafter by confirmation that its solar arrays had deployed.

The first stage then began descending towards Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This was to be the twenty-seventh time that SpaceX had managed to successfully retrieve a first stage booster. However, 7 minutes and 25 seconds after the launch, the first stage began tumbling uncontrollably towards the surface. This was apparently due to the failure of one of the grid fins, which stabilize the first stage during its descent.

Luckily, the mission controllers were able to stabilize the rocket in time with some bursts from the engine, bringing the first stage in for a soft landing on water off the coast of Florida. At 10:34 am PST (0:34 EST), Musk tweeted the apparent cause of the failed landing and addressed possible changes to avoid similar problems in the future.

“Grid fin hydraulic pump stalled, so Falcon landed just out to sea. Appears to be undamaged & is transmitting data. Recovery ship dispatched.” he said, adding later, “Pump is single string. Some landing systems are not redundant, as landing is considered ground safety critical, but not mission critical. Given this event, we will likely add a backup pump & lines.”

Engines stabilized rocket spin just in time, enabling an intact landing in water! Ships en route to rescue Falcon. pic.twitter.com/O3h8eCgGJ7 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 5, 2018

Musk also posted the video of the first stage’s descent, which showed it spinning as it fell to Earth, how its spin rate was slowly arrested with correctional thrusts, and how it touched down on the ocean and fell sideways into the water. Musk also indicated that ships were en route to retrieve the booster. When asked if the booster would be reused, Musk replied, “We may use it for an internal SpaceX mission.”

While the first stage booster did not land as intended, the fact that it survived the descent is no small feat. In addition, this should not distract from the fact that the launch itself went by the numbers. Currently, the Dragon spacecraft is on schedule to arrive at the ISS by Saturday, Dec. 8th. Once there, the crew will use the station’s 17.6 m (57.7 ft) robotic arm (aka. Canadarm2) to capture the Dragon spacecraft and attach it to the orbiting laboratory.

The arrival of the Dragon spacecraft will also be the subject of a live webcast. Coverage will begin at about 02:00 a.m. PST (0:500 a.m. EST) with the capture expected to happen about 1 hour later.

In the meantime, you catch the replay of the launch here:

Further Reading: SpaceX, Twitter, ArsTechnica</s>SpaceX has blasted off its unmanned Dragon cargo ship, loaded with supplies, science experiments and food for the astronauts living at the International Space Station - but failed to land the rocket.

However, the launch was marred by a system failure on the rocket which caused it to land in the sea, instead of on land SpaceX at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, as planned.

SpaceX quickly cut the live feed from the rocket as it began to spin out of control.

Moments later, it said 'It appears stage 1 has made a water landing off the coast of Cape Canaveral.'

Elon Musk later confirmed the issue, saying 'Grid fin hydraulic pump stalled, so Falcon landed just out to sea.'

'Appears to be undamaged & is transmitting data.

He later added that the rocket appeared in good shape, and could be reused on a future mission.

The mission had been a complete success until the aborted landing.

'We have had a great liftoff,' said SpaceX commentator John Insprucker, as the Falcon 9 rocket soared into the sunny, blue sky over Cape Canaveral, Florida at 1:16 pm (1816 GMT), carrying 5,600 pounds (2,500 kilograms) of gear.

The mission is SpaceX's 16th for NASA, as part of a long-term contract to ferry supplies to space.

The Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket on its operational cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station lifts off from space launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018. However, the launch was marred by a system failure on the rocket which caused it to land in the sea

It was initially meant to take off Tuesday, but was delayed for a day after engineers discovered moldy mouse food in one of the science investigations designed to study the effect of microgravity on the immune system.

The bad food was replaced ahead of Wednesday's launch.

Other experiments among the more than 250 on board include a new kind of mustard green lettuce that astronauts will grow in space.

The Dragon space capsule that flew on Wednesday was used once before, on a supply mission in February 2017.

It should arrive at the space station on Saturday morning.</s>Christmas turkey is rocketing toward the International Space Station (ISS), along with cranberry sauce, candied yams and the obligatory fruitcake.

SpaceX launched the holiday shipment on a Falcon 9 rocket, which pierced the clear, chilly sky. The first-stage booster aimed for a touchdown on land back at Cape Canaveral, once its job was done, but ended up smashing into the Atlantic Ocean instead.

A SpaceX commentator called it a “bummer,” but noted it was secondary to the main mission of getting the Dragon capsule to orbit. It was the first missed landing at Cape Canaveral.

“What a great day for a launch,” said Kennedy Space Center director Bob Cabana. Twenty years ago this week, Cabana commanded the shuttle mission that carried up the first U.S. part of the space station.

Wednesday’s Falcon rocket was brand new, while the Dragon cargo carrier was recycled by SpaceX. The capsule should reach the 250-mile-high outpost Saturday; it also visited in 2017.

Besides smoked turkey breast and all the other fixings for Christmas dinner, the delivery includes 40 mice and 36,000 worms for aging and muscle studies, respectively.

Researchers expect a tenfold increase in the worm population. There will be plenty of room on board for all the tiny nematodes long. It turns out their muscles are similar to ours in structure and function, making them perfect lab substitutes, said lead scientist Timothy Etheridge of the University of Exeter in England.

The launch was delayed for a day after NASA discovered that the food for the mouse-tronauts was mouldy because of contamination. More food had to be rushed in from California.

READ MORE: Ice cream, fruit and 3D printer launched to International Space Station

Just two days earlier, three astronauts arrived at the space station to join the three already there. The crew includes two Americans, two Russians, one German and one Canadian. The newest residents will remain on board for six months, while the others will return to Earth on Dec. 20.

SpaceX has been making station deliveries for NASA since 2012. The company expects to start launching station crews next year.</s>Two days after a successful launch from California, SpaceX fired off another Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Wednesday, this one carrying a Dragon cargo ship loaded with 5,660 pounds of equipment and supplies bound for the International Space Station.

But an attempt to recover the booster's first stage ended in failure when the booster experienced a control problem during its final descent, landing in the Atlantic Ocean just east of the launch site. Television cameras switched away from the rocket a moment before impact.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted that a titanium grid fin, used to help steer the rocket during descent and maintain the proper orientation, malfunction, adding that the rocket otherwise appeared to suffer only minor damage.

"Grid fin hydraulic pump stalled, so Falcon landed just out to sea," he said. "Appears to be undamaged & is transmitting data. Recovery ship dispatched."

It was SpaceX's sixth outright landing failure and the first since June 2016, ending a string of 32 successful recoveries, 20 on droneships, 11 on land at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and one at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

Musk says the new "block 5" Falcon 9 stages are designed fly dozens of times with minimal refurbishment between launchings, a key element in the company's drive to lower launch costs by recovering and re-flying recovered stages.

The stage launched Monday from California was making its third flight, a first for SpaceX. But the rocket launched Wednesday from Cape Canaveral was brand new. It's not yet clear what went wrong with the grid fin or whether the mishap will prompt the Air Force to reconsider SpaceX's clearance to land at the Air Force station.

The area around the landing zone currently is evacuated for SpaceX flights attempting a return to Florida, but that was not a factor Wednesday given the rocket's water splashdown.

During the 69th International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany, Oct. 3, Hans Koenisgman, vice president of build and flight reliability for SpaceX, said multiple reflights will soon be the rule, not the exception.

"Beginning soon, we will start flying a booster three times, and then take it to four times, five times, an so on and so forth," he said. "We have obviously to be very careful in evaluating boosters that come back after multiple flights. We want to make sure that we don't see wear and tear in the wrong spots."

The mission got underway at 1:16 p.m. EST (GMT-5) when the Falcon 9's nine Merlin 1C engines ignited with a roar and a torrent of fiery exhaust, quickly pushing the 230-foot-tall booster away from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Liftoff came a day late because of time needed to replace moldy food bars in a habitat housing 40 rodents being carried to the station for medical research. But it was clear sailing Wednesday and the countdown ticked to zero with no interruptions.

At the moment of liftoff, the space station was flying 250 miles above the Indian Ocean south of Australia, but the plane of its orbit was sweeping across the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as Earth rotated below it. The Falcon 9 climbed away to the northeast directly into that orbital plane to enable the planned rendezvous.

The first stage engines shut down and the lower section of the rocket fell away two minutes and 23 seconds after liftoff. The single engine powering the second stage then ignited for a six-minute 18-second burn to complete the climb to orbit.

The first stage, meanwhile, flipped around and restarted three engines to reverse course and head back toward Florida. Another burn four minutes later slowed the stage down for descent back into the thick lower atmosphere.

Long-range tracking cameras provided spectacular views as the stage dropped tail first toward Cape Canaveral. But television views from a camera mounted on the rocket suddenly showed it rotating roughly about it's long axis.

The rocket's center engine apparently started as usual for landing, but by then the booster was well off course and landed in the water.

As it now stands, SpaceX's landing record stands at 32 successful booster recoveries, 11 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, one at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and 20 on off-shore droneships.

But as always, the primary goal of Wednesday's mission was to deliver the Dragon cargo ship to the proper orbit.

If all goes well, the spacecraft will reach the station Saturday morning, pulling up to within about 30 feet and then standing by while station commander Alexander Gerst, operating the lab's robot arm, locks onto a grapple fixture.

Flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston will take over at that point, operating the arm by remote control to pull the Dragon in for berthing at the Earth-facing port of the station's forward Harmony module.

The science gear on board includes an experiment to test robotic spacecraft refueling techniques using ultra-cold cryogenic propellants, another instrument that will use laser beams to measure tree heights globally to determine the effects of deforestation on carbon dioxide processing and another to develop wound dressings that improve drug delivery.

Yet another experiment will study development of retinal implants intended to restore vision to patients with age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. The Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy Space Station Challenge is sponsoring student experiments to develop a UV-activated dental glue that could help astronauts on long-duration voyages and another testing a mist-based irrigation system for plants grown in space.

With the Dragon in hand, the station crew will turn its attention to a planned spacewalk next Tuesday by cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Oleg Kononenko to inspect the Soyuz MS-09/55S ferry ship that carried Gerst, Prokopyev and Serena Auñón-Chancellor into orbit on June 6. Kononenko arrived at the station Monday along with Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques and NASA astronaut Anne McClain.

In late August, sensors detected a small pressure drop in the station's air supply that was traced to a leak in the upper habitation module of the Soyuz MS-09 vehicle. An inspection revealed what looked like a small hole drilled into an interior panel.

Prokopyev sealed the hole with cloth soaked in epoxy and stopped the leak. Russian engineers ordered the spacewalk next week to inspect the exterior of the Soyuz to look for any signs of damage that might be related to the hole found inside the spacecraft.

While the hole appeared to be the result of deliberate action on someone's part, presumably before launch, the Russians have not yet revealed any conclusions.

In any case, the habitation module is discarded before atmospheric entry and the issue is not considered any sort of safety threat when Gerst, Prokopyev and Auñón-Chancellor return to Earth on Dec. 20.</s>KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — SpaceX has encountered more than its fair share of scrubs, but the one that pushed the planned flight of the CRS-16 mission back 24 hours – is a doozy.

While they haven’t gone awry, SpaceX’s and NASA’s plans to launch their 16th resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) have indeed been delayed – due to mice.

An experiment involving the small rodents as test subjects, that was scheduled to fly to the ISS aboard the SpaceX Cargo Dragon resupply spacecraft, was found to have a problem on Tuesday.

Food bars that would be consumed by the mice during the experiment were found to have developed mold. Although some of the bars appeared to be in good condition, it was decided not to risk sending any of the bars, and to instead replace the entire allotment.

An effort was made to try to get the replacement mice food bars properly produced, packed, shipped, and stowed aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft in a timeframe that would still allow the company to meet its 1:38 p.m EST (18:38 UTC) launch timetable today.

It was decided that the launch timetable could not be met, and NASA announced shortly before midnight last night that the launch of CRS-16 would slip to Wednesday, Dec. 5, at 1:16 p.m. EST (18:16 UTC).

The weather for a Wednesday launch is currently forecast at 90 percent favorable conditions.

Michael Cole is a life-long space flight enthusiast and author of some 36 educational books on space flight and astronomy for Enslow Publishers. He lives in Findlay, Ohio, not far from Neil Armstrong’s birthplace of Wapakoneta. His interest in space, and his background in journalism and public relations suit him for his focus on research and development activities at NASA Glenn Research Center, and its Plum Brook Station testing facility, both in northeastern Ohio. Cole reached out to SpaceFlight Insider and asked to join SFI as the first member of the organization’s “Team Glenn.”</s>Blame it on the space mice.

Mold found on food bars for a rodent experience heading to the International Space Station is causing a one-day delay in SpaceX’s resupply mission to the ISS. The launch was scheduled to take off Tuesday afternoon from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, but has been moved to Wednesday at 1:16 p.m. instead.

The mold was found prior to the handover to SpaceX, NASA said. The extra day will give teams time to replace the food bars.

The mice are part of the Rodent Research-8 study that will study how spaceflight affects aging.

“This investigation provides a better understanding of aging-related immune, bone, and muscle disease processes, which may lead to new therapies for use in space and on Earth,” according to a study description.

Worms, too, are going to space in the first United Kingdom-led experiment to make the trip. The experiment, by a team of scientists at Exeter, Nottingham and Lancaster universities, uses worms to study muscle loss in space, with the hope of helping treat muscular conditions on Earth.

The tiny, microscopic worms used in the experience share many biological characteristics with humans and are also affected by the trip to space.

“Sending worms into space sounds wonderfully futuristic but this is real research that could help provide new solutions to health problems being faced here on Earth,” said Melanie Welham, executive chair of the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, in a press release.

The mission is SpaceX’s 16th to resupply with space station. The worms, mice and other supplies and payloads taking the trip in a Dragon spacecraft will support dozens of experiments set to take place on the space station.

Want more space news? Follow Go For Launch on Facebook. Contact the reporter at cherrera@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5660; Twitter @ChabeliH</s>SpaceX's 16th cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station was a success on Wednesday, but the Falcon 9 rocket in-use failed its attempt to return on land, instead plunking into the Atlantic Ocean about two miles off the Cape Canaveral coast.SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk tweeted video footage from the rocket's on-board camera showing the 230-foot-tall first stage booster spiraling through the atmosphere and attempting to emergency-land on the ocean surface rather than Landing Zone 1, the on-ground rocket pad it was intended to stick.“As much as we are disappointed in this landing, it shows the system overall knows how to recover from certain malfunctions," Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of Build and Flight Reliability at SpaceX, said during a news conference after the launch. “The vehicle kept well away from where it could pose the slightest risk to public property.”The failure was caused by a hydraulic malfunction with the booster's grin fins, the square-shaped honeycombs jutting out of its sides used to stabilize the rocket's reentry to Earth. The booster was still communicating with mission control even as it was bobbing in the water on its side roughly two miles off the Cape Canaveral coast, Musk said.The botched landing wasn’t “mission critical,” the CEO tweeted, quelling assumptions that the overall mission was a failure."Grid fin hydraulic pump stalled, so Falcon landed just out to sea. Appears to be undamaged & is transmitting data. Recovery ship dispatched," Musk tweeted.Responding to a question on Twitter, he added that SpaceX might still be able to reuse the rocket — which is currently covered in potentially corrosive saltwater — for an "internal SpaceX mission."Landing fiasco aside, the Falcon 9 successfully lifted off from its launchpad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force station at 1:16 p.m., sending its Dragon cargo capsule on a three-day orbital journey to the International Space Station some 225 miles into space.There, Dragon will unload 5,600 pounds of supplies to the space station’s six-person crew on Saturday and stay docked until January 2019.Among the 5,600 pounds of research includes an "barley germination" experiment from Budweiser to test the beer-making process in space. "It could also provide valuable insight for the general agricultural community," Gary Hanning, director of Global Barley Research wrote in a mission news brief.Wednesday's mission marked SpaceX's 20th launch of 2018, with its final mission of the year targeted for December 18 from the same launchpad, SLC-40, sending a GPS satellite to space for the Air Force.NASA, as part of its effort to utilize the private sector and wean off Russian-made rockets, selected SpaceX for its Crew Dragon capsule and Boeing for its CST-100 Starliner capsule in 2014 to send humans to space as soon as 2019. SpaceX announced in November it will conduct its first uncrewed test of a Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon in January 2019 from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A.</s>SpaceX has successfully launched its 20th rocket of the year, a mission taking supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), but the landing wasn't quite as successful.

Their Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida at 1.16pm Eastern time (6.16pm UTC) today, carrying the CRS-16 Dragon spacecraft into orbit. This is a mission under contract with NASA, as part of their Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program.

SpaceX also attempted to land the first stage booster of the rocket – the first in a new Block 5 class – back on Earth about eight minutes after launching at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral. However, the landing appears to have experienced some problems, with the rocket instead hitting the ocean rather than landing on the ground.

Video footage from just before the landing attempt showed the first stage spinning out of control, with one of its grid fins that it uses to steer itself seemingly out of position. SpaceX later confirmed the booster had performed a "water landing", rather than making it to the landing pad.

"Grid fin hydraulic pump stalled, so Falcon landed just out to sea," CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter. "Appears to be undamaged & is transmitting data. Recovery ship dispatched."

The Falcon 9 rocket used on this mission had not been used before, but the Dragon spacecraft had. It had previously flown on the CRS-10 mission in February 2017. It will take the spacecraft several days to reach the ISS, due to arrive on Saturday December 8.

On board are 2,540 kilograms (5,600 pounds) of supplies, which includes 250 experiments. Among these are 40 mice as part of the Rodent Research-8 (RR-8) mission, along with food bars for the mice. This had caused the flight to be delayed from its initial planned launch yesterday, December 4, when their food became mouldy and NASA had to fly some replacements in.

These mice will live on the station for between 30 and 60 days. Sadly after that they’ll be euthanized, so that their tissue samples can be studied to see how their muscles have coped with living in the microgravity environment of the ISS.

As mentioned this was SpaceX’s 20th launch of the year, and the 19th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket in 2018 – the other was the Falcon Heavy launch on February 6. This is the most launches SpaceX has ever completed in a single year, with their previous record of 18 coming in 2017.

This week also marked the eighth anniversary of SpaceX’s first Dragon flight for NASA, which launched on December 8, 2010, with this being the 16th. SpaceX is contracted in total for 26 missions to the ISS, and next year they are set to begin not just crewed flights, but human flights too.

The number of paylaods on board Dragon is the largest number of payloads ever taken to the ISS in a single launch. And it’s been a good week for multiple-payload fans, because just two days ago on December 3, SpaceX launched the SSO-A mission with a whopping 64 different satellites on board.

Dragon will remain on the ISS after about five weeks, when it will depart the station, re-enter our atmosphere, and splash down in the Pacific Ocean. At the moment, this is the only cargo spacecraft that can return experiments and research from the ISS.</s>SpaceX on Wednesday blasted off its unmanned Dragon cargo ship, loaded with supplies, science experiments and food for the astronauts living at the International Space Station but failed to successfully land its booster afterwards.

"We have had a great liftoff," said SpaceX commentator John Insprucker, as the Falcon 9 rocket soared into the sunny, blue sky over Cape Canaveral, Florida at 1:16 pm (1816 GMT), carrying 5,600 pounds (2,500 kilograms) of gear.

The mission, SpaceX's 16th for NASA as part of a long-term contract to ferry supplies to space, successfully made it to orbit, which was the primary goal of the launch.

But the tall portion of the rocket missed its goal of securing an upright landing on solid ground at Cape Canaveral's Landing Zone 1.

After separating from the second stage, and firing its engines to return to Earth, a video camera on board showed the first stage spinning.

Then the live feed was cut off.

"Grid fin hydraulic pump stalled, so Falcon landed just out to sea," CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter.

"Appears to be undamaged and is transmitting data. Recovery ship dispatched."

SpaceX has landed more than 30 of its boosters successfully back on Earth, either on land or on a floating platform.

The effort is aimed at reducing the cost of launches by re-using expensive components, instead of jettisoning them in the ocean after each mission.

The rocket was initially meant to take off Tuesday, but was delayed for a day after engineers discovered moldy mouse food in one of the science investigations designed to study the effect of microgravity on the immune system.

The bad food was replaced ahead of Wednesday's launch.

Other experiments among the more than 250 on board include a new kind of mustard green lettuce that astronauts will grow in space.

The Dragon space capsule that flew on Wednesday was used once before, on a supply mission in February 2017.

It should arrive at the space station on Saturday.</s>On Monday, it launched a Falcon 9 rocket from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, which was headed to space—and the record books. As USA Today notes, the rocket’s booster was the first Falcon 9 to launch three missions, an important part of the company’s plan to reduce costs by reusing rockets. The booster was also the first to launch from all three of SpaceX’s pads (Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and Vandenberg). If that wasn’t impressive enough, the launch was also SpaceX’s 19th launch of the year—the previous record was 18—and it still has three more launches planned before the year is out.

To cap off this very big week, Elon Musk’s company today is planning to launch a Falcon 9 rocket loaded with thousands of pounds of cargo bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The Dragon capsule will deliver more than 5,600 pounds of food and supplies to the crew, as well as scientific experiments, including the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation, which will measure the impact of climate change on the world’s forests. It’s SpaceX’s 16th cargo mission as part of its contract with NASA.

Here’s how to watch the launch, which is scheduled to take off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1:16 p.m. ET:

Watch on NASA TV below, or at NASA’s website, or via SpaceX’s own webcast.

The launch was initially scheduled for Tuesday, but was delayed due to *checks note* moldy mouse food. According to Space.com, if all goes according to plan, the Dragon will reach the space station three days from now, and the ISS crew can start unpacking the load. The Dragon is scheduled to return to Earth in mid-January.
SpaceX successfully launches CRS-16 on its way to the International Space Station. The first stage crashes into the ocean near Cape Canaveral and is later recovered.