On April 11, the SpaceX company from America handled a launch of The Falcon Heavy booster. The Second launch of this rocket was successful: the ArabSat 6A telecommunications satellite was sent into orbit, the side blocks of the 1st stage returned to the landing sites near the cosmodrome, and the center core of the rocket landed on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean. However, they didn’t get a chance to save this block for new launches of SpaceX.
When the platform was delivered to the Florida coast, the center core of the stage fell into the ocean during the storm. SpaceX stated that when the height of the waves rose from 2.5 to 3 meters, the stage began to shift and eventually did not hold in the vertical position. Although they hoped to return the accelerator unscathed, the safety of the team always prevails. Also, SpaceX expects this incident won’t affect future missions.
Due to the technology, SpaceX fastens the returned to the Earth Falcon 9 stages to the deck to transport them on the platform with the help of a robot known as Octagrabber. However, because of the structural differences of the Falcon Heavy central core, the lost stage was not securely fastened to the platform by the robot.
Just a small reminder, the center core of the 1st stage of Falcon Heavy is a heavily-modified 1st stage of the Falcon 9 launcher, while the side blocks are used the same steps almost unchanged. During the first launch of Falcon Heavy in February 2018, SpaceX failed to return the rocket's central unit — it fell into the ocean while landing on the platform, not having time to apply the brake.
SpaceX is currently planning the next launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket for summer 2019. It was initially intended to use the new central unit of the 1st stage, so the recent loss really should not affect the timescales of this mission.
