The SpaceX's Starship rocket prototype exploded during a return-landing attempt, minutes after an apparently uneventful test lift-off from the company's launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
The Starship rocket destroyed was a 16-storey-tall prototype for a heavy-lift launch vehicle being developed by Elon Musk's private space company to carry humans and 100 tonnes of cargo on future missions to the moon and Mars.
The launch was carried by SpaceX on a YouTube livestream.
The self-guided unmanned rocket blew up as it touched down on a landing pad following a controlled descent.
The test flight had been intended to reach an altitude of 12,500 metres propelled by three of SpaceX's newly developed Raptor engines for the first time.
Elon Musk said in a tweet immediately following the accident that the rocket's "fuel header tank pressure was low" during descent,"causing touchdown velocity to be high."
He added that SpaceX had obtained "all the data we needed" from the test.
Watch the moment SpaceX Starship explodes upon return to earth after high-altitude flight test. https://t.co/iO0AbfOQIS pic.twitter.com/R3zBxvtHUE
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) December 10, 2020
