SpaceX's giant Starship rocket, which boss Elon Musk wants to eventually take people to Mars, has reached space on its third launch attempt, though it did not successfully make it back to Earth in one piece.
The 120-metre tall rocket blasted off from the company's Boca Raton base on the Texas coast at just before 9.30am ET on Thursday.
Just over a quarter of an hour later, Starship, the upper part of the two-stage vehicle, reached orbital velocity and soon after was coasting in space.
Starship is coasting in space pic.twitter.com/ZFUXMUkufW
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2024
This followed the first and second launches making it into the air but exploding after a few minutes' flight.
However, SpaceX confirmed the rocket lost contact in the final stages of its mission, having reached enough speed to coast toward its finish line halfway around the world before failing on re-entry.
Musk celebrated the rocket reaching space with a tweet that noted Starship, weighing in at around 5,000 tons, "is the largest flying object ever made".
SpaceX is not publicly listed but FTSE 100 investment trust Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC has a large stake, making up 4% of its portfolio.
SMT shares fell 0.8% however, dropping in afternoon trading as it also has big stakes in Tesla (down 1.5% today), Nvidia (down 2.6%) and ASML (down 0.7%) among its top five holdings.