Elon Musk explained why SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Rocket booster didn’t land as intended

If you’re wondering why Elon Musk has been in the news a lot recently, it’s because he’s making big strides with SpaceX, his aerospace company that designs and launches rockets. On Tuesday, February 6th, SpaceX launched its latest rocket, the Falcon Heavy Rocket. Overall, the launch was an out-of-this-world success. The Falcon Heavy Rocket made it into orbit AND landed two of its boosters in an upright position at Kennedy Space Center’s landing pad. But the third booster, which was supposed to land on a SpaceX drone ship in the ocean, didn’t fare as well, exploding before it could return.

Now, Musk has provided some details as to what went wrong. Apparently, the Falcon Heavy Rocket booster that didn’t land didn’t have enough ignition fluid. It missed the floating platform by 328 feet, landing in the Atlantic Ocean at a speed of 300 mph. Musk said that the solution was “pretty obvious.”

Still, the Falcon Heavy Rocket launch was a huge success. This was Musk’s most powerful rocket yet. In fact, it was the second most powerful rocket in the U.S., after the Saturn V.

Overall, the Falcon Heavy Rocket launch was a big win for Elon Musk and SpaceX.

Falcon Heavy side cores have landed at SpaceX’s Landing Zones 1 and 2. pic.twitter.com/oMBqizqnpI

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 6, 2018

More photos from Falcon Heavy's first flight → https://t.co/095WHX44BX pic.twitter.com/6vlXJoYif0

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 7, 2018

"It's just changing the whole game," Musk told the L.A. Times after the launch. "The fact that you have a brand-new rocket that is the most powerful rocket and it's a success on the first try, that's big news."

So what’s next for Elon Musk and SpaceX? Now that he knows how to correct for what happened during this launch, it’s only a matter of time until there’s another launch. Musk is serious about someday allowing people to live on other planets. So who knows — one day, you may be reading this from Mars.