SpaceX Starship spins out of control in shock footage before falling apart during flight

SpaceX has lost another Starship this week after a failed test flight saw the rocket lose control mid-air before tumbling and falling apart moments before its scheduled splashdown.

The spacecraft was launched on Tuesday in a mission that followed two other failures by billionaire Elon Musk's commercial space flight company. An early explosion left fuel leaking from the vessel, causing the rocket to spin uncontrollably. According to SpaceX, the flight team had lost altitude control as the rocket continued its re-entry.

It comes after previous Starship explosions over the Gulf of Mexico this year. In March, a Starship rocket exploded during a test flight just after it was launched from Texas, halting flights and sparking warnings about flying spaceship debris.

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The SpaceX starship - a stainless-steel vessel standing 400 feet tall - is the world's largest and most powerful rocket, and its test flights are considered vital contributions to the US' space ambitions. After what appeared to be a promising start on Tuesday’s mission, the massive rocket separated from the booster, just as six engines were fired to propel it upwards across the globe. SpaceX controllers also lost command of the vessel long after the engines failed.

The company was hoping for a successful flight to prove the vehicle's capabilities, after previously saying it had learned from the past mistakes and made upgrades for this flight. The rocket's booster was supposed to splash down in one piece but it fell apart as it dropped back down toward the Gulf of Mexico.

“The last two months have been an absolute, like, gauntlet for a lot of people, and we’re continuing to learn more about this ship and about this rocket,” Dan Huot, a SpaceX commentator, said on SpaceX's live broadcast. “We are trying to do something that is impossibly hard.”

In a post on X, Musk said the issues with the spacecraft were due to leaks that “caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase.” But that the company had “lot of good data to review. Launch cadence for next 3 flights will be faster, at approximately 1 every 3 to 4 weeks.”