Elon Musk’s SpaceX has suffered its second rocket failure this year after one of its spacecraft exploded just minutes after taking off from a Texas launchpad.
The firm was using last night’s Starship launch to place mock satellites in orbit as part of longer-term plans to make long-haul trips to Mars. The Starship rocket is SpaceX’s largest spacecraft and has been developed with the intention of lowering launch costs through economies of scale.
The rocket lifted off around 18.00 ET (23.00 GMT) last night, and while its super heavy first stage returned to the launchpad as expected, visualisations showed the upper stage spinning in space before the firm lost contact with it altogether. Final contact with Starship came approximately nine minutes and 30 seconds after lift-off.
While no injuries were reported, some people on Caribbean islands described fiery debris falling back to Earth.
SpaceX said: “Any surviving debris would have fallen within the pre-planned Debris Response Area. There are...