SpaceX’s latest test of its giant Starship rocket ended in failure just minutes after launch.
According to officials from Elon Musk’s company, the upper stage was lost due to complications that arose shortly after lift-off from Texas on Thursday.
However, the Super Heavy booster successfully returned to its launch pad as intended, drawing cheers from ground control teams.
This mission coincided with the maiden flight of the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket system, funded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The two tech moguls, Musk and Bezos, are vying for dominance in the competitive 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.
“Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!” Mr Musk posted on X, sharing a video showing a fiery trail streaking though the sky.
He also said “improved versions” of the ship and booster were “already waiting for launch”.
“Preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity,” Musk said a short while later, adding that “nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month”.
Footage of the launch garnered 7.2 million views on SpaceX’s livestream.
The Starship system launched from Boca Chica, Texas, at 17:38 EST (22:38 GMT) in its seventh test mission.
As planned, the Starship upper stage separated from the Super Heavy booster nearly four minutes into the flight. However, SpaceX Communications Manager Dan Huot later announced during the livestream that mission teams had lost contact with the ship.
Despite this, the Super Heavy booster successfully returned to its launch pad approximately seven minutes after lift-off, drawing applause from ground control teams.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed it was aware of “an anomaly” that occurred during the 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.
This follows a day after SpaceX launched a rocket from Florida, carrying two privately-built lunar landers and a micro rover to the Moon.
The uncrewed Falcon 9 took off from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin successfully achieved its first orbital rocket launch, marking a significant milestone for the company after years of development to reach this stage.