Dramatic footage shows the moment 230ft SpaceX rocket's landing support fails causing it to tip over before EXPLODING 

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This is the dramatic moment that Elon Musk's SapceX Falcon 9 rocket failed its third attempt at an ocean landing before tipping over and exploding.

Footage taken from the landing platform shows the craft coming down to rest before one of the stabilizing legs fails, causing it to tip over.

The 230ft rocket then comes slamming down on to the pad before the force of the impact triggers and explosion which blows the craft apart.

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Elon Musk has shared footage taken from the landing pad during his latest attempt to land a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket following a mission to put a climate-monitoring satellite into orbit

The video shows the rocket coming into land while firing thrusters to slow its descent, all of which seems to pass off without a hitch

However, moments after touching down it become apparent that something has gone badly wrong as the 230ft ship begins to tilt towards the camera

In an Instagram post which accompanied the video, Musk explained that one of the legs failed to lock into place, leading to the catastrophic collapse.

Speculating on the cause of the failure, Musk added: 'Root cause may have been ice buildup due to condensation from heavy fog at liftoff.' 

The rocket, which lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1.42pm Eastern Time, first put a key climate-monitoring satellite into orbit.

It then turned around to attempt to land on a platform in the ocean.

But at 2.07pm, SpaceX tweeted: 'First stage on target at droneship but looks like hard landing; broke landing leg.' 

This is the third failed landing for Musk's SpaceX program, with the two previous rockets also exploding. 

A successful ocean landing would be a major breakthrough in Musk's quest to develop a cheap, reusable rocket as most rockets are disposed of after launch.

Such developments could pave the way for space tourism and a city on Mars, Musk says. 

SpaceX has tried ocean landings twice without success, but officials are optimistic after the company last month safely returned a Falcon 9 booster to a landing pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. 

About two minutes after liftoff, the first stage of the rocket will separate, flip around, fire engines to slow its fall, deploy landing legs and attempt to touch down on a floating landing pad in the Pacific Ocean. 

It comes just days after new footage emerged of its Falcon 9 rocket's historic landing back on Earth after delivering satellites to orbit.

The new footage reveals the landing up close, showing the rocket's legs being deployed, and its smooth touchdown.

Seconds later, the landing support to the right of the screen appears to buckle and fold up under the rocket, causing the 600-ton craft to come toppling towards the landing pad

Alongside the video, Musk wrote that one of the landing legs failed to lock in place and speculated that heavy fog on liftoff could have caused condensation to build up, resulting in the failure

As the rocket comes smashing down the force of the impact triggers and explosion which blows it apart - the same fate suffered by Musk's two previous rockets

Accomplishing an ocean landing will give the California-based SpaceX flexibility to recover its boosters from a wider variety of space missions. The firm, owned and operated by Musk, wants to refurbish and refly its rockets, potentially slashing launch costs.

Similar efforts are underway by fellow tech titan Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, as well as industry stalwart United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) and Boeing (BA.N).

For now, SpaceX is concentrating on reusing just the first stage of its Falcon rockets, which sell for about $61 million, the company's website shows.

Of that, only about $200,000 is for fuel, Musk said at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco last month.

'With reusable rockets, we can reduce the cost of access to space by probably two orders of magnitude,' or a factor of 100, Musk said at the conference.

SpaceX eventually wants to return the rocket's second-stage for reuse as well.

The rocket slated to launch NASA's Jason-3 satellite is an older version of the rocket that flew last month and does not have the power to attempt a touchdown on land, SpaceX said.

SpaceX has more than 60 missions on its schedule, worth about $8 billion.

Following on from its historic landing last month, SpaceX has released an image of its Falcon 9 booster rocket back in its hangar.

This is the moment the Falcon 9 launched in California on Sunday hoping to make its first ocean landing

The rocket successfully reached its destination in the Pacific Ocean but broke one of its landing legs as it crashed onto the surface 

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is seen at Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 4 East with the Jason-3 spacecraft onboard on Saturday, a day before takeoff

The Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a NASA ocean-monitoring satellite, blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California before trying to land on a barge similar to this

However, this particular booster won't fly again, given its significance. 

The company has other booster rockets available for future missions, and another booster landing could occur as early as next month on a space station supply run for Nasa.

SpaceX wants to reuse rockets to save time and money.

The firm made history when it successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket. 

The upgraded 23-storey-tall rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:29pm EST on 21 December, and touched down nearby a few minutes later.

It was the first time an unmanned rocket returned to land vertically at Cape Canaveral, and represented a tremendous success for SpaceX.  

Musk claims the landing paves the way for humans living on Mars. 

'I think it really quite dramatically improves my confidence that a city on Mars is possible,' he said. 'That's what all this is about.'

'Welcome back, baby!' Musk tweeted after touchdown. 'It's a revolutionary moment.' 

Musk later told reporters. 'No one has ever brought a booster, an orbital-class booster, back intact.' 

However competitor Jeff Bezos, who achieved a similar success last month, couldn't help gloating when he tweeted: 'Congrats on landing Falcon's suborbital booster stage. Welcome to the club!'

The Amazon founder managed to land a rocket, New Shephard, back on Earth after launch. 

However, the New Shephard is designed to take passengers into sub-orbital space, whereas the Falcon 9 is designed to go into the lower Earth orbit, which is higher up. 

New video reveals the historic Falcon touchdown in new detail, showing the rocket touching back to earth

The new footage reveals the landing up close, showing the rocket's legs being deployed, and its smooth touchdown.

Bezos was quick to note that SpaceX's initial success was in sub-orbital space - a sly dig at his competitor.

Nasa applauded SpaceX's feat. 'Congratulations @SpaceX on your successful vertical landing of the first stage back on Earth!' Nasa said in a tweet.

Musk is striving to revolutionise the rocket industry, which currently loses many millions of dollars in jettisoned machinery and sophisticated rocket components after each launch.

What's significant is that this was a useful mission, Musk noted, not merely a practice flight. 'We achieved recovery of the rocket in a mission that actually deployed 11 satellites,' he said.