Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s Starship exploded minutes after launching from Texas marking its second consecutive failure this year. The 403-ft rocket lifted off successfully in the early hours today, but its upper stage spun out of control before losing contact. Debris was seen falling over South Florida and the Bahamas. SpaceX called the failure a rapid unscheduled disassembly, vowing to analyze the data for improvements. The rocket is crucial to Elon Musk’s vision for Mars colonization and NASA’s Artemis Moon missions. The spaceship was meant to re-enter Earth’s orbit over the Indian Ocean after a one-hour flight. The uncrewed rocket lost control and exploded over the Atlantic, prompting brief ground stops at Orlando and Miami airports.

This failure follows a similar incident in January that caused debris-related damage in the Caribbean. Despite the setback, SpaceX remains optimistic, stating that the test will provide valuable lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.

This was the eighth mission to test the rocket and its second consecutive failure. The investigations into the failure are underway.

Starship is the biggest, most powerful rocket ever built, and is key to Elon Musk’s ambitions for colonising Mars. SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket – collectively referred to as Starship – is intended to be fully reusable. NASA hopes to use a modified version of the spaceship as a human lunar lander for its Artemis mission to return to the Moon.