X's giant Starship rocket has failed, minutes after launch.
The latest test of Space X’s giant Starship rocket has failed, minutes after launch.
Officials at Elon Musk’s company said the upper stage was lost after problems developed after lift-off from Texas on Thursday.
But the Super Heavy booster managed to return to its launchpad as planned, prompting an eruption of applause from ground control teams.
The mission came hours after the first flight of the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket system, backed by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.
The two tech billionaires both want to dominate the space vehicle market.
“Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause,” SpaceX posted on X.
“With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability.”
Unverified footage shared on social media shows what appears to be the rocket breaking up in flames.
And footage showed orange balls of light flying across the sky over the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince, leaving a trail of smoke behind.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was aware “an anomaly occurred” during the SpaceX mission.
“The FAA briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the area where space vehicle debris was falling. Normal operations have resumed,” it said in a statement.
It comes a day after a SpaceX rocket blasted off from Florida carrying two privately constructed lunar landers and a micro rover to the Moon.
The uncrewed Falcon 9 launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday.
And Bezos’ Blue Origin company successfully launched a rocket into orbitfor the first time.
It was a huge step forward for Bezos and his company that has spent years getting to the point of sending a rocket into orbit.
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