--- title: See the SpaceX Rocket Crash Land in Middle of the Ocean description: These were the final moments of the Falcon9 rocket that narrowly failed a test landing in the middle of the ocean. canonical: https://time.com/3671527/spacex-rocket-crash/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-16T16:25:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:38:52.668Z article:section: Science og:title: See the SpaceX Rocket Crash Land in Middle of the Ocean og:description: “Close but no cigar,” Elon Musk tweeted og:url: https://time.com/3671527/spacex-rocket-crash/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77c492cf8193ec31/69877a5de20a8767aca848e1/spacex-rocket-crash.gif?branch=production&width=798&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 798 og:image:height: 449 og:image:alt: SpaceX Rocket Crash og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See the SpaceX Rocket Crash Land in Middle of the Ocean twitter:description: “Close but no cigar,” Elon Musk tweeted twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77c492cf8193ec31/69877a5de20a8767aca848e1/spacex-rocket-crash.gif?branch=production&width=798&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See the SpaceX Rocket Crash Land in Middle of the Ocean > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jan 16, 2015 4:25 PM UTC  GIF by Mia Tramz for TIME by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jan 16, 2015 4:25 PM UTC 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/) 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"}}]}] ```