SpaceX’s gigantic Starship rocket has been “lost” just minutes into its seventh test flight.
The 400ft rocket – the biggest and most powerful in the world – soared from Boca Chica, south Texas, on Thursday around 4.40pm local time (10.40pm in the UK).
Just minutes after the rocket launched, its booster made its planned return to the ground and was caught between two giant mechanical arms.
However, as crowds cheered the booster’s return, SpaceX confirmed it had lost contact with Starship after a possible in-space failure.
A host on SpaceX’s livestream later confirmed: “At this point in time, we can confirm we did lose the ship.
“It looks like we lost contact a little under eight and a half minutes into the flight.”
The flight was the seventh test run for the newly upgraded Starship, and marked the next step in Elon Musk’s bid to build the first fully reusable spacecraft to get humans to Mars.
The Starship had been significantly upgraded since its sixth test flight in November and it was due to deploy dummy satellites in space for the first time.
