[manaskarekar]

As for the first stage:

"Following stage separation, the first stage of Falcon 9 will attempt an experimental landing on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship. As with other GTO missions, the first-stage will be subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating, making a successful landing difficult."

Mission Press Kit : http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/spacex_eutelsat_abs...

EDIT: Sounds like they lost the first stage, still not very clear on the details.

EDIT2: Confirmed loss of first stage by Elon Musk.

"Ascent phase & satellites look good, but booster rocket had a RUD on droneship"

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743096769001578498

[lallysingh]

I had to look it up: RUD is "Rapidly Unscheduled Disassembly"

[dopamean]

Rapidly or rapid? Is in the unscheduled part that is rapid or the disassembly?

[nraynaud]

that would be a rapidly scheduled disassembly. "yeah, we totally planned that in half a second".

[larrywright]

This might be my favorite acronym of all time.

[outworlder]

Was it caused by a lithobraking maneuver?

[mikeash]

I believe in this case it was a skafobraking maneuver. Not many lithos out in the Atlantic to brake with.

[AliCollins]

Did the "experimental landing" work this time?

[manaskarekar]

No clear word yet. Feed froze as usual and whatever was on the screen was covered in black smoke.

I did see something upright though, so who knows.

Meanwhile, for anyone looking for one of the most epic moments: https://youtu.be/L0bMeDj76ig?t=29m28s

[dtparr]

No. It appeared briefly on the deck, but Elon tweeted it was a RUD, and that they'll be releasing video once they get access to it later today.

[jefurii]

I love the commentator's wording: "We'll see whether yes, we landed, or no, we've got more experimental data."

[atonse]

Feed died.

I hope the next-gen of communications satellites improves the broadband-over-satellite situation.

If only there was a company in this day and age that is launching satellites often and at lower cost. :)

[bisby]

Apparently the broadband out there is great. The issue isn't lack of satellites or speed.

The issue is that when you have a Merlin 1D (or 3) firing directly at a mobile platform, it's going to shake violently. And when you have sensitive equipment on that platform shaking, you're going to have a satellite misalignment and signal cut outs while the lock is reacquired.

Considering this is a pretty unique scenario (I would imagine 99% of satellite internet connections don't have rockets landing on them), I doubt it's a high priority to resolve somehow.

[EA]

On the telecast they just said it appears the vehicle was lost.

[vvanders]

Seems like one engine was low on thrust:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743097337782763521

[krallja]

It's not clear. The video feed cut off at landing. There was a lot of smoke, and possibly a standing rocket.