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

The Super Heavy booster, meanwhile, was successfully caught in the launch tower's mechanical arms for only the second time

The company says that “Starship flew within its designated launch corridor” and “any surviving pieces of debris would have fallen into the designated hazard area.” The falling debris put on a show in the evening sky over the Caribbean and was captured by several tourists who seemed both amazed and slightly anxious about what they were witnessing.

A SpaceX Starship rocket broke up in space minutes after launching from Texas on Thursday, forcing airline flights over the Gulf of Mexico to alter course to avoid falling debris and setting back Elon Musk's flagship rocket program.

The rocket company said the space vehicle came apart during its ascent. Videos posted to social media showed debris streaking through the sky.

The seventh test flight of SpaceX’s Starship ended with a successful landing of the rocket’s first stage but also the loss of the Starship vehicle

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

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.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday it will oversee an investigation by Elon Musk's SpaceX into an explosive Starship test flight the previous day that forced airlines to divert dozens of flights to avoid debris.

The 171-foot-tall (52 meters) spacecraft exploded over the Atlantic Ocean near the Turks and Caicos islands around 8.5 minutes after launch, creating a spectacular sky show witnessed by many people in the area. And a fair few of these folks posted their photos and videos on X, the social media site owned by SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk.

SpaceX caught the Starship rocket's Super Heavy booster for a second time, after it launched the upper stage into space on Thursday during a seventh test