US lands SpaceX's Starship after explosion on test flight

The US has grounded SpaceX's giant Starship rocket while an investigation is underway into why it exploded during its latest test flight.

The rocket's upper stage dramatically broke off and disintegrated over the Caribbean after the launch from Texas on Thursday, forcing airline flights to alter course to avoid falling debris.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was working with SpaceX and other authorities to confirm reports of damage to public property in the Turks and Caicos Islands. There are no reports of casualties.

Elon Musk's company has been ordered to conduct an “accident” investigation by the aviation regulator, which will review the findings before deciding whether Starship can return to flight.

The FAA confirmed it had activated a “debris response area” to briefly slow aircraft outside the area where debris fellor stop planes from leaving their take-off points.

He added that several planes asked to divert due to low fuel levels while they were held outside the affected area.

Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built and is key to Musk's ambitions to colonize Mars.

Thursday's uncrewed launch was Starship's seventh test mission and the first involving a taller, upgraded version of the rocket.

The Starship's upper stage, two meters (6.56 feet) taller than previous versions, was a “new-generation ship with significant improvements,” SpaceX said before the test.

It was scheduled to make a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean approximately an hour after its launch from Boca Chica, Texas.

The Starship system lifted off at 17:38 EST (22:38 GMT) and the upper stage separated from its Super Heavy booster almost four minutes into the flight as planned.

But then SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot announced in a live broadcast that the mission teams had lost contact with the craft.

The Super Heavy booster managed to return to its launch pad approximately seven minutes after liftoff as planned, prompting an outburst of applause from ground control teams.

SpaceX later confirmed that the upper stage had undergone a “rapid unplanned disassembly”.

In a post on his social media platform X, Musk said “preliminary indications” are that the problem is related to “an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship's engine bulkhead.”

The billionaire added that “nothing so far suggests pushing the next launch beyond next month.”

SpaceX's Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket – collectively called Starship – are 123m (403ft) tall and designed to be fully reusable, the company says.

NASA hopes to use a modified version of the rocket as a human lunar lander for its Artemis lunar return missions.

In the more distant future, Musk wants Starship to make long-distance trips to Mars and back—about a nine-month trip each way.

Starship's test launch on Thursday came hours after the maiden flight of the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket system backed by Amazon chief Jeff Bezos.

It was a huge step forward for Bezos and his company, which has spent years getting to the point of sending a rocket into orbit.

Bezos and Musk want to dominate the space vehicle market.