U.S. Headlines

WATCH: SpaceX Rocket Explodes In Attempt To Land On A Barge

NPR | By Eyder Peralta

Published January 18, 2016 at 5:47 AM PST

Members of the media setup remote cameras for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch with the Jason-3 spacecraft onboard at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Saturday.

Space is hard.

We were reminded of that yesterday when SpaceX tried to land a Falcon 9 rocket on a barge in the Pacific.

If you remember, SpaceX made history when another Falcon 9 successfully launched a satellite into orbit and then navigated back down to Earth, landing safely on solid ground.

SpaceX had tried once before to land a rocket on a platform in the ocean but that failed pretty spectacularly.

On Sunday, the Falcon 9 delivered a satellite into orbit and it came super close to sticking the landing on water. Here's video:

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk explained what happened and added a bit of humor:

Definitely harder to land on a ship. Similar to an aircraft carrier vs land: much smaller target area, that's also translating & rotating.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 17, 2016

However, that was not what prevented it being good. Touchdown speed was ok, but a leg lockout didn't latch, so it tipped over after landing.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 17, 2016

Well, at least the pieces were bigger this time! Won't be last RUD, but am optimistic about upcoming ship landing. pic.twitter.com/w007TccANJ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 17, 2016

Corrected: January 18, 2016 at 9:00 PM PST

An earlier version of this post said that SpaceX had tried to land a rocket on a platform in the ocean once before. In fact, this was SpaceX's third attempt.