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America launches powerful climate satellite to monitor El Nino system, tsunamis and oil spills

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is seen as it launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 4 East with the Jason-3 spacecraft onboard. REUTERS

CALIFORNIA US: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Sunday and put a climate-monitoring satellite into orbit, but botched an attempted return landing on a platform at sea, officials said.

The first stage of the rocket made it back to the platform, which was floating in the Pacific Ocean, but one of the rocket's landing legs failed to latch into position, SpaceX founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk wrote on Twitter.

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