Though it had carried out a handful of successful launches, SpaceX's legacy of launch-day malfunctions is well recognized by now, and will likely create problems for CEO Elon Musk as he pushes to launch the company's first manned space flight by the end of the year.

But in the latest setback, the company failed in what RT described as an "audacious" mission to retrieve rockets after launch. After the main rocket successfully landed on a sea-based launch pad, the center core booster that had helped power the rocket missed the pad, instead crashing into the sea in a fiery explosion.