SpaceX's Starship rocket broke apart over the Indian Ocean on Tuesday after a series of in-flight failures during its latest test launch.
The launch from the company’s Texas site, now known as Starbase, marked the third test of the vehicle central to Elon Musk’s Mars ambitions.
Problems began when the Super Heavy booster exploded rather than landing as planned, and the upper stage failed to open its payload bay.
Despite flying further than previous tests, the craft lost control and disintegrated on re-entry.
SpaceX called the incident a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” and vowed to accelerate its launch schedule, aiming for one flight every three to four weeks.