The largest, most powerful launch vehicle ever built is meant to be a key part of SpaceX’s plans to send humans to Mars—and NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the moon, too

After launch, an apparent propellant leak entered its suborbital trajectory left Starship spinning and mission control unable to control the craft.

Much was riding on Flight 9 for Elon Musk’s giant moon and Mars rocket after debris from January and March flights fell into the Atlantic Ocean, disrupting air travel.

The consecutive failures may have decreased the likelihood SpaceX can meet NASA’s goal of landing on the moon in 2027, experts said.

SpaceX launched Starship Tuesday, May 27 on its first test flight since March. This time, the vehicle further than the previous two flights.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gave a talk to employees inside the Starfactory, laying out the future of the Starship Program in terms of hardware and reuse. He also revealed SpaceX’s ambitious plan to colonize Mars over the next decade.

SpaceX's prototype Starship exploded over the Indian Ocean on Tuesday, capping another bumpy test flight for the rocket central to billionaire Elon Musk's dream of colonizing Mars.

The final concept, which was unveiled in 2019, consisted of a Starship composed of stainless steel instead of carbon fiber (per the original proposal), with reusable heat shield tiles on the windward side (similar to the Space Shuttle).