SpaceX pulled off its “chopsticks” catch of a Super Heavy rocket booster but lost the Starship spacecraft on Thursday during the vehicle’s seventh uncrewed test flight.

Dramatic footage showing streaks of light zipping across the sky surfaced online following Elon Musk's Starship explosion over the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX launched Starship on Thursday for a seventh test flight, after weather concerns pushed back an experiment that will feature the spacecraft’s first payload deployment test, and while it successfully caught the Super Heavy Booster, Starship lost connection and “experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

In the ever-ambitious Elon Musk, the man behind Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink, this penchant for disruption has been on the cards for a long time.

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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.

"Preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity."

In the early morning hours of Dec. 31, 2024, SpaceX ended its year as it began it, with one final launch of Starlink satellites into orbit. The launch marked SpaceX's 134th mission of the year (138 missions if you count Starship test flights).

After the successful booster recovery, SpaceX officials reported losing contact with the spaceship toward the end of the ascend.

Starship Meteor Shower SpaceX's Starship has exploded into countless pieces of space junk as it reentered the atmosphere over the Caribbean. The company's seventh test flight has ended in a potential disaster,

SpaceX readies its seventh test flight of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever designed. The trial will test upgrades to the spacecraft and deploy mock satellites.

The "rapid unscheduled disassembly" was likely caused by a propellant leak, Elon Musk said, and was captured on video by spectators on the ground.