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February 6th 2018 saw the first test launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 Heavy rocket.

During the main core's landing on the marine landing pad, the connection was lost. As such it is not immediately clear whether the launch and landing were a complete success or not.

What was the main core's fate in the end? Did it manage to land correctly?

JAD
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    I am aware that there might not be an answer yet. I am very interested to learn of the fate of the core whenever a statement is made however. – JAD Feb 06 '18 at 21:35
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    This question is going to have 6 simultaneous answers as soon as the tweet from SpaceX hits telling us the fate of the core. – JPhi1618 Feb 06 '18 at 21:55
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    And 6 uninformed answers before that. – Russell Borogove Feb 06 '18 at 23:09
  • If you go back to the recording, right as a below answer states, around 38:30 the flight crew says we lost the center core, about 5 seconds before the smoke appears on screen. It would be safe to assume the smoke was a crash as you can also see some debris fly off screen. – ggiaquin16 Feb 06 '18 at 23:16
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    "Musk: Center core didn't make it. Only one engine relit." https://twitter.com/jasonrdavis/status/961028209792909313 – Russell Borogove Feb 07 '18 at 00:13
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    @RussellBorogove doesn't that make it not POB anymore? Seems to me there is a very objective answer. – JAD Feb 07 '18 at 05:50
  • @JAD Yes, now it’s merely trivial. – Russell Borogove Feb 07 '18 at 06:35
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    You couldn't have just ... waited a day to find out? If the info isn't available, asking on here isn't going to get you an answer. SpaceX never hides this type of information, and it's not as though a SpaceX employee would post here before they make a public announcement. They just needed some time to figure out what happened. I am completely puzzled by the purpose of this question. – user428517 Feb 07 '18 at 19:44

4 Answers4

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The core has been lost, according to the technical stream:

If you wait until ~38 min and 30 seconds, the announcer says "We lost the center core".

Update:

Elon Musk has confirmed that the center core didn't make it. To paraphrase from the SpaceX post-launch news conference

The center core obviously didn't land on the droneship, or we would have shown that... It ran out of propellant to relight the engines... It was the center one [that ignited], I believe, and the outer two did not, and that was not enough to slow it down. [something I can't make out] hit the water at three hundred miles an hour and took out two of the engines on the droneship... That sounds like some pretty fun footage, so if the cameras didn't get blown up as well, then we'll put that on a blooper reel

That was ~41 minutes into the video, I believe.

awksp
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    Do you think Lost means video? Or as in misplace? Or as in destroyed? I am not so sure that is not a lost video on center core. Of course, time will tell. – geoffc Feb 06 '18 at 22:01
  • Was this when the main stream announcers were about to say something about the core, and they stopped? Or did this happen way after that? – JPhi1618 Feb 06 '18 at 22:02
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    @geoffc I think it means the core itself was lost; I had the impression that the callout for lost video is something along the lines of "lost telemetry" or "lost downlink". – awksp Feb 06 '18 at 22:04
  • @JPhi1618 To be honest, I'm not sure. I had the technical stream audio over the main stream video, and on listening to the main stream there's a bit much going on for me to tell where exactly it is. Sorry :( – awksp Feb 06 '18 at 22:05
  • @geoffc, I went back and watched, the flight crew says that they lost the center core about 5 seconds before the smoke appears on feed. You can also see some sort of debris fly off screen in the smoke as well. From re-watching that 10 sec segment a few times, I would best guess that the core didn't slow down enough to land safely. – ggiaquin16 Feb 06 '18 at 23:13
  • @JPhi1618 That was after. They said they lost the core just after both boosters landed – Uzer Feb 06 '18 at 23:42
  • The audio at that point was terrible, but I'm almost certain he corrected the initial "propellant" statement to "TEA/TEB," or the lighter fluid used to ignite engines. – Saiboogu Feb 07 '18 at 15:31
  • the core crashed, a picture of the RUD/drone ship damage would be great. – 300D7309EF17 Feb 07 '18 at 19:46
  • How did you find that video? It was unlisted – Uzer Feb 09 '18 at 18:51
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The feed was in fact in the background the whole time.... they did not loose signal as stated by the presentors. Here you can see highlighted in red, smoke, smoke clears and then you can see the whole drone ship pad with no rocket.

Just released yesterday (10th of March) actual footage of the centre core crashing:

Uzer
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  • They did lose the feed for a bit - if they hadn't the smoke would have been seen moving. Good video though. – Baldrickk Feb 14 '18 at 18:09
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if you watch the part in the feed when they warn that the cameras might cut out due to vibration immediatly after the screen appears to go grey. but if you look closely you can still see the handrailing in the bottom left of the shot. i believe the grey is smoke. and when it first goes grey you can see a projectile shoot off to the right side of the screen... all signs points to a center core crash.

Tail-chaser
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In addition to the verbal confirmations that it went into the sea next to the drone ship spacex now seems to have released A video "falcon heavy and starman" showing (among other mission highlights) the core crashing into the sea next to the drone ship.

Peter Green
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