SpaceX suffered another setback on Tuesday when its Starship rocket reached space, but failed to deploy its payload and part of the vehicle was lost on re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
While the mammoth 400ft rocket was successfully propelled into sub-orbit from its Starbase in Texas, it was unable to deploy eight mock Starlink satellites. The loss of control of its upper stage over the Indian Ocean leaves SpaceX needing to undergo significant work to achieve its goal of manned flights to the Moon and Mars.
“Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly. Teams will continue to review data and work towards our next flight test,” SpaceX said in a statement.