Jan 18, 2016 10:24 AM EST By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

SpaceX successfully delivered a satellite into orbit Sunday, but again watched its rocket tip over and crash after attempting to land it back on the ground.

After two failed attempts, SpaceX performed a rocket landing in December. This time, the company tried to land its Falcon 9 rocket on an unmanned sea-based barge, though they were no successful.

According to The Associated Press, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted a video of the landing attempt to his Instagram account. In the post, he stated the "root cause may have been ice buildup due to condensation from heavy fog at liftoff."

SpaceX is still trying to perfect rocket re-landing in hopes recycling rockets for future launches and thus slashing the cost of unmanned missions to space. While the company has landed one rocket in four attempts over the past year, SpaceX has proven reliable in getting its payload to space.

The Jason-3 satellite will "monitor 95 percent of the world's ice-free oceans every 10 days," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a news release.

"Jason-3 will continue the legacy of the Topex/Poseidon and earlier Jason satellites by gathering environmental intelligence from the world's oceans," Stephen Volz, assistant administrator for NOAA's Satellite and Information Service, said in the release. "Jason-3 will tell us about the heat of the ocean, vital data if a tropical storm or hurricane is tracking into that location. Having up-to-date sea surface temperatures will help NOAA forecasters better determine if a storm may intensify."

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