SpaceX Starship launch: World’s biggest rocket loses contact after reaching space

After months of delays, SpaceX finally launched its massive Starship rocket as part of a major flight test of the Mars-bound craft – before losing it around 10 minutes after lift off.

Saturday’s attempt comes seven months after the first effort to launch a fully stacked Starship – which is both the tallest and most powerful rocket ever built – ended in a catastrophic explosion, just minutes after lift off.

SpaceX boss Elon Musk says Starship holds the key to making humanity a multi-planetary species, with plans to build hundreds of the spacecraft in order to set up a permanent human colony on Mars.

But first Starship had to conduct an uncrewed orbital test, which saw it leave from its launchpad at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas, before both stages of the rocket were lost.

A 20 minute launch window opened at 7am CT (1pm GMT), with the flight scheduled to last around 90 minutes, though ending within 10. You can find all the latest updates and watch a live stream below.

Starship launch key points

• Watch the live stream of the Starship launch attempt
• What was meant to happen during today’s Starship launch attempt
• What actually happened during today’s Starship launch attempt
• SpaceX loses Starship rocket

[18 November 2023 13:52 · Anthony Cuthbertson]

SpaceX has shared clips of the two major milestones accomplished on today’s test flight: Lift off and stage separation.

The clip of the stage separation ends just before the Super Heavy booster exploded, but you see it begin its descent back to Earth as SpaceX engineers on the ground cheer it on.

There is no clip of the upper stage exploding a few minutes later, and we’ll probable never see more than the onboard footage just before the RUD occurs.

Here’s the lift off:

And here’s the stage separation: