--- description: These were the final moments of the Falcon9 rocket that narrowly failed a test landing in the middle of the ocean. title: See the SpaceX Rocket Crash Land in Middle of the Ocean image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77c492cf8193ec31/69877a5de20a8767aca848e1/spacex-rocket-crash.gif?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Science](/section/science/) ## Science Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Space](/tag/space/) ## Space Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # See the SpaceX Rocket Crash Land in Middle of the Ocean by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 16, 2015 4:25 PM CUT  GIF by Mia Tramz for TIME by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 16, 2015 4:25 PM CUT SpaceX launched a resupply ship to the International Space Station last week, but it narrowly failed a test to securely navigate the rocket back to earth. The [company founded by Elon Musk](http://time.com/3662625/jeffrey-kluger-history-importance-spacex/ "undefined") believes that a reusable rocket could drastically reduce the costs of space transportation, and as you can see in the GIF above compiled from images that Musk tweeted, they’re very close to finalizing the technology. In the first attempt, the Falcon 9 rocket descended back to floating platform about 200 miles off the Florida coast. But it was a hard landing, and the rocket was largely wrecked. “Close but no cigar,” Musk tweeted at the time. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3671527/spacex-rocket-crash/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3671527/spacex-rocket-crash/"},"headline":"See the SpaceX Rocket Crash Land in Middle of the Ocean","datePublished":"2015-01-16T16:25:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:38:52.668Z","description":"“Close but no cigar,” Elon Musk tweeted","url":"https://time.com/3671527/spacex-rocket-crash/","keywords":["Space","Transportation","SpaceX","space travel"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77c492cf8193ec31/69877a5de20a8767aca848e1/spacex-rocket-crash.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77c492cf8193ec31/69877a5de20a8767aca848e1/spacex-rocket-crash.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"SpaceX Rocket Crash","caption":"SpaceX Rocket Crash","creditText":"GIF by Mia Tramz for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3671527/spacex-rocket-crash/","name":"See the SpaceX Rocket Crash Land in Middle of the Ocean"}}]}] ```