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.

Eyewitnesses of the SpaceX blast captured footage of glowing orange fragments streaking through the sky near Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, leaving smoky trails in their wake.

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,

"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."

The seventh test of SpaceX's huge Starship rocket was nothing short of exhilarating, with a fiery explosion and a successful booster catch.

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

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

After SpaceX’s Starship exploded over Turks and Caicos on Thursday, the FAA launched an investigation, demanding answers into the mishap.

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).

SpaceX's extraordinary journey under Elon Musk showcases milestones in affordable space exploration, including Starship's successes despite setbacks.

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.”