SpaceX rocket falls and explodes on landing

The unmanned rocket launched on Sunday night to carry the Jason-3 satellite to space for a number of US and European science agencies.

However when it returned to earth to land vertically on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean, it tipped over and exploded.

WATCH: Falcon 9 explodes after landing on ship

Musk tweeted after the landing that while the rocket’s speed was ok, a leg lockout didn’t latch, causing it to fall.

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

It’s the third time the company has tried to land a rocket vertically on a ship, with the rockets exploding on the last two occasions.

However the company has previously successfully landed one rocket on land.

Musk has previously said if rockets can be reused like aeroplanes, then the cost of access to space can be reduced “by as much as a factor of a hundred”.

“That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize access to space,” he said in June 2015.