Normally, Falcon 9 boosters are secured on the barge via a big, flat robot with arms normally called the Octograbber. It looks like a giant Roomba that could suck your entire house up into its little dustbin:

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The problem is that the Octograbber is mostly designed to work with single Falcon 9 boosters, or the boosters on the sides of the Falcon Heavy stack. The center core booster is, apparently, designed just differently enough that the Octograbber can’t grab the booster, which is at least in part why the booster was lost, something Elon himself confirmed over Twitter:

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The other problem with this is that in a Falcon Heavy launch, at least one booster has to land at sea, since SpaceX only has two landing pads at Cape Canaveral. The center booster spends more time aloft than the side boosters, so it makes more sense to land it further downrange at sea.

Elon also Tweeted that the engines may be recoverable, but nothing is certain as yet:

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Space travel isn’t easy, even in the parts that take place on Earth. Hopefully Aquaman is enjoying his new rocket.