SpaceX’s Starship rocket test ends in explosion

SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket exploded midflight on its eighth test, the second failure in a row.

Ground control lost contact with the world’s most powerful launch system after about 10 minutes, CNN reported.

The explosion was visible over the Caribbean, and several Florida-bound flights were delayed for risk of debris.

Starship’s failure was one part of a rare bad day for the private space industry, after Intuitive Machines said its Athena moon lander appeared to have fallen over on the lunar surface, as its first attempt did last year.

Meanwhile, the European Space Agency’s new Ariane 6 rocket successfully carried a satellite to orbit, reviving Europe’s independent space capacity: Europe has relied on US rockets because the invasion of Ukraine made using Russian facilities impossible.