Wednesday's incident involved the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket — the lower part of the spacecraft, which provides the first burst of energy at liftoff — which failed to land vertically on a sea platform and exploded.
The overall mission, however, appeared to go off without a hitch, safely delivering a batch of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites into orbit.
Still, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which licenses commercial rocket launches, said it intends to investigate the accident.