SpaceX founder Elon Musk releases images of rocket crashing on barge

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has tweeted pictures of the moment one of the company's rockets crashed while attempting to land on a barge.

The images show the second before impact as power is lost before the rocket crashes dramatically at an angle of 24 degrees exploding in a huge fireball.

After launching on 10 January 2015, the Falcon 9 rocket was returning from a successful trip transporting the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station to deliver supplies and scientific equipment.

SpaceX attempted to land the first stage of the rocket on a spaceport drone ship in the Atlantic ocean and as the company reports on its website: "While the rocket made it to the drone ship, it landed hard".

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According to Musk, the barge will need only minor repairs. He jokingly described the moment of impact as the "Full RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) event".