Boca Chica, Mar 07 (V7N) – SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft lost contact with Earth within 10 minutes of launch before catching fire and disintegrating. This marks the third major failure for SpaceX’s most ambitious rocket program after two previous unsuccessful launches this year.

According to Deutsche Welle, the explosion sent burning debris into the sky, temporarily halting air traffic in and around Florida.

The 403-foot rocket lifted off from Boca Chica, Texas, at 6:30 p.m. local time (6:30 a.m. in Bangladesh).

SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot, addressing the failure during a live broadcast, remarked:

"Unfortunately, the same thing happened last time. We're getting some practice."

A similar explosion occurred just two months ago, making this the second consecutive failure for billionaire Elon Musk’s company. Musk, a close confidant of former US President Donald Trump, has been pushing for rapid development of Starship as part of his Mars colonization vision.

SpaceX has yet to confirm the exact cause of the failure, but engineers are expected to analyze flight data to determine what went wrong. The setback raises concerns about the timeline for Starship's future missions, including NASA's Artemis program, which aims to land astronauts on the Moon.

Despite the failures, SpaceX remains committed to refining Starship, which is the most powerful rocket ever built and is designed for deep space exploration.

END/MSS/AJ