Today’s launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 to the ISS went well, though the landing of the booster back at the Cape didn’t:
Tweets from Elon Musk indicate a stalled hydraulic pump crippled one of the grid fins that guide the first stage back to the landing platform, imparting a uncontrolled spin to the rocket the other three could not mitigate.
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As part of their SOP, the booster is initially aimed at a point just off shore from the landing pad, so that it will impact the ocean instead should this very even occur.
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This is SpaceX’s first failure to land an F9 (that they intended to recover) in 27 attempts going back to 2016.