SHOCK CLIP: Multi-million pound space rocket blown to bits on platform

SpaceX’s next launch is another satellite, this time for communications firm SES, scheduled to blast off in February.

The SpaceX launch on Sunday morning to land its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean ended in failure, but it’s a step closer to a new spaceflight strategy.

A month after the billionaire’s space company landed the first stage of its rocket on a landing pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., it is going to try to land it on a floating platform at sea. Its primary mission was to put the Jason 3 ocean-mapping satellite into orbit, and it did so successfully.

SpaceX is one of several companies that contracted with the USA space agency NASA to ferry supplies, and eventually astronauts, to the International Space Station.

Wondering how Falcon 9’s first stage will attempt to fly back to Earth on our next launch?

A couple minutes later SpaceX announced that the landing failed because a landing leg broke.

SpaceX was successful in December in landing its rocket upright on land, and it admits sea landings are more hard.

Nailing the landing is huge for SpaceX and space travel as a whole because Musk has previously said he believes reusing rockets – which cost as much as a commercial airplane – could reduce the cost of access to space by a factor of one hundred.

Although the company has not landed a rocket at sea yet, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the latest attempt showed continued progress and he is “optimistic” about getting ship landings correct.

The Falcon 9 rocket was launched yesterday on a mission to carry NASA’s Jason 3 satellite, which will monitor the world’s oceans, into orbit. The solar array deployment began on time. “Jason-3 satellite has been deployed”.

Chief executive Elon Musk posted video footage of the blast on social media, along with an explanation of what went wrong.

Musk plans to continue to attempt ship landings, which he cites as important for higher-velocity launches.

Thousands of rocket gazers gathered on the sides of nearby roads and in parks to watch the first Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base since September 29, 2013. The mission is planned to last at least five years.

“Definitely harder to land on a ship”. By all accounts, today’s mission was considered a success and Jason-3 is now in orbit around the Earth.