Watch the Incredible 'Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly' of SpaceX's Falcon 9 Rocket

Last Saturday, SpaceX made an ambitious attempt to land the spent core stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on an autonomous drone ship landing pad in the Atlantic Ocean. CEO Elon Musk placed the odds of success at just 50 percent, later clarifying that the 50-50 estimate was just a guess. The experimental landing effort occurred during the company's fifth paid Dragon spacecraft cargo run to the International Space Station. Dragon arrived safely at the station on Monday morning.

Following first stage separation, the Falcon 9 used a series of engine burns to adjust its course for landing. While the rocket made it to the landing pad, the grid fins used to control its descent ran out of hydraulic fluid. The stage lost control and crashed. All in all, it was an impressive feat, and SpaceX intends to try again until they stick the landing.

Late last night, Musk tweeted four images of the rocket impacting the landing pad, taken by a camera aboard the drone ship. Here is a video combining all four frames:

And here's the above video in a lower-resolution animated GIF:

Musk called the event a "rapid unscheduled disassembly," a possible tongue-in-cheek reference to NASA and other rocket providers' penchant for using obtuse terminology to describe rocket disasters.

Here are all four of Musk's tweets, along with an explanation of each frame.