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. Elon Musk later confirmed the issue, saying 'Grid fin hydraulic pump stalled, so Falcon landed just out to sea.' "Appears to be undamaged and is transmitting data. "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. 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.
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.