The 122m rocket system, the core of Musk’s goal of sending humans to Mars, managed to fly beyond the point of two previous explosive attempts earlier this year, which sent debris streaking over Caribbean islands and forced dozens of airliners to divert course.
But SpaceX lost contact with the booster during its descent and it slammed into the Gulf of Mexico in pieces, rather than making the controlled splashdown the company had planned.
“Not looking great with a lot of our on-orbit objectives for today,” SpaceX broadcaster Dan Huot said on a company livestream.
Musk was scheduled to deliver an update on his space exploration ambitions in a speech from Starbase following the test flight, billed as a livestream presentation about “The Road to Making Life Multiplanetary.”
The SpaceX Starship rocket launches from Starbase, Texas (Photo by Sergio Flores/ AFP)
SpaceX later confirmed that the spacecraft experienced “a rapid unscheduled disassembly”, or burst apart.
Musk noted in a post on X that it was a “big improvement” from the two previous demos, which ended in flaming debris over the Atlantic.
It was the first time one of Musk’s Starships – intended for moon and Mars travel – flew with a recycled booster.
SpaceX mission control lost contact with the upper stage of Starship as it leaked fuel, spun out of control, and made an uncontrolled reentry after flying halfway around the world (Photo by SERGIO FLORES/AFP via Getty Images)The previous two Starships never made it past the Caribbean. The demos earlier this year ended just minutes after liftoff, raining wreckage into the ocean.
Nasa needs SpaceX to make major strides over the next year with Starship – the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built – in order to land astronauts back on the moon.
That will happen in 2027 at the earliest and require a Starship to get two astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface and back off again.
With agencies
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