SpaceX Starship launch highlights: US aviation body confirms ‘mishap occurred'

The US Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees commercial launch sites, confirmed a mishap occurred that "resulted in a loss of the vehicle," adding no injuries or property damage have been reported, according to Reuters.

SpaceX owner Elon Musk has congratulated the team behind the Starship launch.

“With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary,” the Elon Musk-owned company wrote on X.

SpaceX says that Starship successfully lifted off under the power of all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy Booster and made it through stage separation.

“The booster experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly shortly after stage separation while Starship's engines fired for several minutes on its way to space,” it added.

Nasa chief Bill Nelson has congratulated SpaceX teams for making progress during today’s flight test.

“Spaceflight is a bold adventure demanding a can-do spirit and daring innovation. Today’s test is an opportunity to learn—then fly again. Together NASA and SpaceX will return humanity to the Moon, Mars and beyond," he writes.

Engineer John Insprucker, who was hosting SpaceX's livestream, confirmed SpaceX was forced to destroy Starship so it did not veer off course.

According to the BBC's science correspondent, Starship, at its present velocity, would've been somewhere over Africa.

“If something was wrong, which clearly there was, then the computer would've destroyed the vehicle at the earliest opportunity so the debris came down over the Atlantic Ocean and not on land over Africa,” he adds.

Before it all went haywire, Elon Musk's Starship rocket lifted-off sucessfully from a company's Starbase launch site near Boca Chica in Texas.

This was Starship's second launch after its first flight in April ended up in an explosion.

According to CNN, Elon Musk's SpaceX confirmed on its livestream that it was forced to trigger Starship's “flight termination system” – a self-destruct feature that SpaceX engaged to prevent the Starship from traveling off course.

-SpaceX's uncrewed spacecraft Starship, which has been developed to carry astronauts to the moon and beyond, blasted off succesfully from the launch site near Boca Chica in Texas for a planned 90-minute flight into space.

-Soon after the lift-off it reached space for the first time but SpaceX subsequently said it has lost contact with the spacecraft.

-"We have lost the data from the second stage... we think we may have lost the second stage," SpaceX's livestream host John Insprucker said.

The two-stage rocketship succesffuly lifted-off from the Elon Musk-owned company's Starbase launch site near Boca Chica in Texas, on a planned 90-minute flight into space, but contact was lost roughly 10 minutes after lift-off, Reuters reported, citing a company broadcaster.

"We have lost the data from the second stage... we think we may have lost the second stage," SpaceX's livestream host John Insprucker said.

A SpaceX engineer says that in the last few minutes that the team has lost the data from the second stage of this flight, according to the BBC.

The team have also now signed off on their live feed of the launch. More details are awaited.

SpaceX says tha the data has been lost from Elon Musk's Starship rocket flight, failure presumed.

The livestream by SpaceX shows cheers at the SpaceX centre in Texas, where its staff has gathered.

SpaceX's Starship rocket has reached space for the first time on second test launch attempt, the company's livestream shows.

Here's when the largest rocket ever built was launched on its second test flight.

SpaceX has carried out the second test launch of Starship, the largest rocket ever built, in Texas.