Well this was the older rocket model, maybe they should just switch to the new version from now on.

Heavy seas? Don't the engineers understand the concept of dynamic loading? Barge rising quickly on sea, Rocket coming down quickly. Wham. Not exactly rocket science. What's wrong with landing on land? If they are concerned with potential collateral damage there is always a suitable desert with nobody around.

Well, I understand why they're doing the sea landings, but they're not doing their PR any advantages by trying to land on rough seas.

@Richard The rocket landed softly, but one of the legs didn't lock in properly. Gizmag decided to post this article without waiting for the full story to be released about the soft landing. Also, for some missions such as this one which required a polar orbit, it's not always possible for the rocket to have enough fuel to make it all the way back to the pad. If it can land on a platform in the ocean and be towed back, there are still savings to be had.

I think there is a flaw in the concept, even in the old movies the vertical landing rockets had legs or landed horizontally

I'm sure they didn't have half this trouble back in the '60s with the moon landings.

If he insists on landing at sea why not use a parachute and flotation bags?

@MidwestB I was wondering why try to land on a ship. Still it seems to me like trying to balance a pencil on my little finger in a hurricane!! Amazing stuff!!!

Why do they want to land it on a barge at sea?

"Failure?" Hardly. The booster came back from a hypersonic flight and guided back to a tiny floating platform at sea. Once there, it was slowed by its rocket motor in a completely controlled manner to land within two meters of the intended landing spot. All of that occurred after successfully launching its payload into earth orbit. The landing gear failed to support the booster on touchdown, admittedly. But otherwise what Space-X had done was a tremendous technical accomplishment. This kind of landing boosters business is completely beyond "conventional" rocketry. This is experimental stuff and they're making it up as they're going along because it has never been done before. Back during the Space Race with the Russians, "failure" meant blowing up on the launch pad in a gigantic orange inferno. Going into space (and now returning) with rockets is still pretty iffy, despite the fact that after nearly three quarters of century of doing it, we can pull it off fairly reliably. It will probably never be as reliable as jet airline travel is today, and even that's not 100% as you well know.