The Falcon 9 rocket had successfully launched the cargo capsule Dragon which was on a mission to deliver goods to the International Space Station.
Musk, who is CEO of SpaceX, a company which manufactures and launches rockets and spacecraft, described the crash landing as "close but no cigar".
The images show it was a little more dramatic:
Musk has said that the problems began when the fins that steered Falcon 9 stopped working right before landing. A lack of hydraulic fluid was to blame.
This caused the craft to tilt and hit the deck at a 45 degree angle.
This caused damage that allowed the fuel left in the tank to combine with oxygen and create this massive explosion.
Musk described it as a "full rud" or "rapid unscheduled disassembly". Ruddy hell!
However, Elon Musk was typically unphased, saying the upcoming flight "already has 50% more hydraulic fluid, so should have plenty of margin for a landing attempt next month". He says he's "super proud" of his crew and the ship only needs "minor repairs".
SpaceX is just one of Musk's projects. As well as being the co-founder of PayPal, Musk is the CEO and chief product architect of Tesla Motors and has invented the Hyperloop, a high-speed "fifth mode" of transport.
Correction: a factual error in an earlier version of this story was corrected on 18 January 2015.
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Inventor and entrepreneur Elon Musk has shared the first images of the moment his rocket crashed into a floating spaceport.