SpaceX rocket EXPLODES as it lands

SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk, an investor who also owns Tesla Motors, took to Twitter to explain, saying that the rocket landed successfully but one of the legs failed to fully lock and collapsed on impact. A couple minutes later SpaceX announced that the landing failed because a landing leg broke.

The firm succeeded in landing its Falcon 9 first stage – the long towering portion of the rocket – on solid ground at Cape Canaveral, Florida in December.

Today, SpaceX was hoping to achieve the first ever rocket recovery on a drone ship in the ocean.

The rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Sunday night (AEST) and successfully placed the $180-million satellite, Jason-3, into orbit.

The space company is attempting to land the rockets, making them reusable, to reduce the cost of space travel.

Officials admit landing on a ship presents more challenges the returning than booster to land, but if SpaceX eventually aims to recover and reuse all its Falcon 9 boosters, the barge is essential.

SpaceX said the rocket landed within 1.3 meters (yards) of the droneship’s center. In fairness, the unmanned Elon Musk rocket was attempting to land on a floating ocean platform that was being rocked by 10-to 15-foot swells at the time. He mentioned that there will be 3 or 4 more launches out of Vandenberg this year, allowing for more opportunities for west coast rocket landings in the future. Jason-3 will float around 830 miles above the planet, tracking the rate of global sea-level rise, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. While SpaceX has another rocket landing attempt to learn from, backers were also able to celebrate the successful deployment of the Jason-3 satellite. He said the “root cause may have been ice buildup due to condensation from heavy fog at liftoff”, in an Instagram post accompanying the video of the landing.

Last year, SpaceX tried twice to land on the drone ship.

Even though an ocean landing is more hard, SpaceX says it needs to ideal the technique so it can bring back its rockets in all kinds of situations.