Despite the failure, Elon Musk appeared to see the bright side, posting: "Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!"

Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, pulled off a daring booster catch on its most ambitious test flight yet, but the spacecraft was lost. Follow for the latest news.

A SpaceX Starship rocket broke up in space minutes after launching from Texas on Thursday, forcing airline flights over the Gulf of Mexico to alter course to avoid falling debris and setting back Elon Musk's flagship rocket program.

The Starship's booster was caught as planned between two giant mechanical arms at the launchpad - but disaster hit the rocket itself.

SpaceX pulled off a launch-tower catch of Starship's Super Heavy booster during a test flight today (Jan. 16) but lost the vehicle's upper stage.

SpaceX's Starship Flight 7, launched at 4:37 PM CST from Starbase, Texas, US, has been confirmed to fail The spacecraft broke apart, with debris spotted reentering Earth's atmosphere over the Turks and Caicos Islands pic.twitter.com/kVDyAcTRZQ

On Friday (Jan. 10), SpaceX successfully stacked its Starship spacecraft atop a giant Super Heavy booster to prepare for the next launch of the world's largest rocket next week. Liftoff is set for 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) on Monday (Jan. 13) from SpaceX's Starbase test site near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to X on Thursday night to explain what his company believes may have caused part of the Starship rocket to experience a "rapid unscheduled disassembly."

Elon Musk‘s SpaceX Starship prototype exploded in the air, merely minutes after taking off for his seventh test flight, disrupting air traffic and forcing “at least” 20 commercial flights to alter course in order to avoid fallen debris from the destroyed rocket.

Flawed rocket launches by SpaceX and Blue Origin still leave both companies in position to dominate the space sector.

SpaceX's Starship exploded mid-air during its seventh test flight on Thursday, forcing airlines to divert flights in order to avoid collisions with falling spacecraft debris. Seana Smith and Brad Smith report on the latest developments surrounding this incident.