Elon Musk‘s next-generation Starship exploded less than ten minutes into its second test flight after separating from its main booster rocket – seven months after the spacecraft’s first flight ended in explosive disaster.
The uncrewed test flight of the SpaceX craft – which is strapped to a Super Heavy booster twice as powerful as the rocket which flew men to the moon, and is designed to carry out lunar missions – took off shortly after 1pm UK time on Saturday.
Mission control lost contact with the spacecraft eight minutes into the 90 minute trial as it approached the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere. Live footage streamed on X, formerly Twitter, appears to show an explosion as the rocket was 148km (91 miles) above the Earth.