A SpaceX rocket booster was ruined after toppling over in rough waters

This 2016 photo shows a SpaceX Falcon 9 on the I Still Love You sea launchpad just off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida. NASA via Getty Images

• A SpaceX Falcon 9 booster was ruined during transit back to port over the weekend.
• The booster had launched over 860 satellites and two people into orbit, according to SpaceX. 

SpaceX is down a rocket booster after a Christmas snafu.

One of its Falcon 9 boosters, B1058, tipped over after landing on its drone ship while being transported back to Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to SpaceX. The booster, an older model that lacked some of the auto-stabilization leg features, fell over due to rough rough waters and turbulent winds, the company said.

Wind and turbulent waters can make landing more difficult, SpaceX’s VP of launch, Kiko Dontchev, wrote on X.

“Tippy boosters occur when you get a certain set of landing conditions that lead to the legs having uneven loading,” Dontchev wrote. “Heavy wind or sea state then cause the booster to teeter and slide which can lead to even worse leg loading.”

“We will make lemonade out of lemons and learn as much as possible,” Dontchev added.

Newer versions of Falcon boosters are less likely to tip over thanks to better landing legs designed to better self-level themselves.

This particular Falcon 9 booster finished its 19th and final mission on December 23. It transported over 860 satellites into space over the past three and a half years, the space company said.

It also transported astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station in 2020. This was the first manned American flight into space since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011 and SpaceX’s first manned mission.

SpaceX VP for Falcon Launch Vehicles Jon Edwards told the Orlando Sentinel that SpaceX won’t let the rest of the booster “go to waste.” He said the company plans to recover the engine and inspect the rest of the booster’s remaining hardware.

Despite B1058’s bumpy landing that left it unusable, SpaceX isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

On Thursday evening, a launch window is scheduled to open for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy ship carrying the Space Force’s mysterious X-37B space plane to orbit, Florida Today reported.

A launch window for the Starlink 6-36 mission is also expected to open between late Thursday night and early Friday morning, according to Florida Today. If conditions permit, a Falcon 9 will launch from Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.