The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral at 10:29 local time
It delivered its payload of two communications satellites into orbit
But it failed to land on the floating drone platform in the Atlantic Ocean
SpaceX confirmed it lost the rocket after a hard touch down, with Elon Musk pointing to weak thrust on the engine's rockets as a likely cause
Elon Musk and SpaceX had hoped to make it four in a row today by landing a Falcon 9 rocket on a floating drone barge off the US coast, but confirmed the rocket did not survive the landing.
The Falcon 9 took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 10:29 local time (15:29 BST), carrying two communications satellites into orbit.
It returned to land on floating barge in the Atlantic Ocean minutes later, but failed to touch down successfully in what the firm says may be the hardest landing impact to date.
There was added drama after the live video feed on the floating platform froze, leaving it unclear as to whether or not the first stage of the rocket had landed successfully.
In a live stream of the launch, SpaceX confirmed: ‘Unfortunately we lost the vehicle in [the] landing’.
Elon Musk took to Twitter after the failed landing, pointing to low thrust on the rocket's engines as the reason for failure. Any lack of thrust would have meant the rocket approached the platform faster than anticipated.
He wrote: 'Looks like thrust was low on 1 of 3 landing engines. High g landings v sensitive to all engines operating at max.'
The billionaire entrepreneur quipped: 'Ascent phase [and] satellites good, but booster rocket had a RUD on droneship' - with RUD meaning 'rapid unscheduled disassembly'.
Musk confirmed the droneship - called 'Of Course I Still Love You' - survived the impact, adding that SpaceX hopes to post video footage of the landing when crew gain access to the barge later today.
The sixth mission of the year for the private firm delivered French-operated Eutelsat and ABS, controlled by Bermuda-base Asia Broadcast Satellite Limited, into geosynchronous orbit.
SpaceX confirmed that both satellites had been successfully deployed.
Eutelsat will relay video and data services to South and Central America, the Caribbean and the southern US, while ABS will provide communications to Russia, India, Africa and South Asia.
While the firm has successfully landed four of its Falcon 9 rockets after launch - one on land and three on the drone barge - it is yet to reuse one of them to take payloads into space.
Earlier this month, chief executive of SpaceX Musk revealed on Twitter that the firm plans to relaunch one of its rockets later this year, with a probable launch date in September.
If it goes ahead, this would make it the first relaunch of the private space company's rockets.
SpaceX has come a long way in its efforts to land Falcon 9 rockets, finally nailing its first successful barge touch down in April this year.
One thing to be sure of is that the firm will have collected data from all stages of today's launch and will analyse what went wrong this time and how to prevent it from happening again.
Video emerged at the start of the year showing three of the failures which eventually led to three successful barge landings.
It shows the rockets crunching wobbling, tipping and exploding on the floating barge, all in the hope that reusable rockets will be commonplace in future.
One thing to be sure of is that the firm will have collected data from all stages of today's launch and will analyse what went wrong this time and how to prevent it from happening again.
Video emerged at the start of the year showing three of the failures which eventually led to three successful barge landings.
It shows the rockets crunching wobbling, tipping and exploding on the floating barge, all in the hope that reusable rockets will be commonplace in future.
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