SpaceX Starship rocket breaks up in latest setback

SpaceX's Starship rocket has spun out of control about halfway through its flight without achieving some of its most important testing goals, bringing fresh engineering hurdles to CEO Elon Musk's increasingly turbulent Mars rocket program.

The 122-metre Starship rocket system, the core of Musk's goal of sending humans to Mars, lifted off from SpaceX's Starbase, Texas, launch site, flying beyond the point of two previous explosive attempts earlier this year that sent debris streaking over Caribbean islands and forced dozens of airliners to divert course.

For the latest launch, the ninth full test mission of Starship since the first attempt in April 2023, the upper-stage cruise vessel was lofted to space atop a previously flown booster - a first such demonstration of the booster's reusability.

But SpaceX lost contact with the lower-stage booster during its descent before it plunged into the sea, rather than making the controlled splashdown the company had planned.

Starship, meanwhile, continued into suborbital space but began to spin uncontrollably roughly 30 minutes into the mission. The errant spiralling came after SpaceX cancelled a plan to deploy eight mock Starlink satellites into space.

Musk was scheduled to deliver an update on his space exploration ambitions in a speech from Starbase following the test flight. Hours later, he had yet to give the speech and there was no sign that he intended to do so.

In a post on X, Musk touted Starship's scheduled shutdown of an engine in space, a step previous test flights achieved last year.

Musk said a leak on Starship's primary fuel tank led to its loss of control.

"Lot of good data to review," he said. "Launch cadence for next 3 flights will be faster, at approximately 1 every 3 to 4 weeks."

SpaceX has said the Starship models that have flown this year bear significant design upgrades from previous prototypes, as thousands of company employees work to build a multi-purpose rocket capable of putting massive batches of satellites in space, carrying humans back to the moon and ultimately ferrying astronauts to Mars.

In issuing approval for Tuesday's test, the US Federal Aviation Administration said it had nearly doubled the airspace closure zone to 2963km east of the launch site.

The Starship test involved co-ordination with authorities in the United Kingdom, the British-controlled Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, Mexico and Cuba, according to a media report.

The Starship rocket system was first tested in April 2023, when it completely exploded after just a few minutes. In subsequent tests, the upper stage reached space and even landed in a controlled manner in the Indian Ocean.

with EFE and DPA