Falcon 9 rocket lands on drone ship but 'tips over' afterwards

Space X’s plans to create a reusable space rocket has edged closer to reality after the Falcon 9 managed to return from space and land on a target drone ship – before landing too hard and tipping over.

The costly Space X rocket perished, but the private company’s bid was the closest attempt yet.

“Ascent successful. Dragon en route to Space Station. Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival,” Space X founder Elon Musk tweeted.

Mr Musk said they would have more information on what went wrong when they retrieved video footage from the autonomous barge ship upon its return to port in the next few days.

“Looks like Falcon landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post-landing,” Mr Musk tweeted.

The rocket was returning to Earth after successfully launching the Dragon capsule to dock with the International Space Station, where it will deliver food and cargo supplies, including an Italian espresso machine.

The capsule will return to Earth in around five weeks’ time.

The destroyed Falcon 9 represents the third failed attempt to return the rocket to Earth in a bid to make rocket technology reusable.

Bad weather forced the first rocket to ditch in the Atlantic ocean, and while the second rocket was on target to land on the barge ship, it exploded seconds before impact.