The third Starship test flight last March saw the spacecraft reach its planned trajectory and fly halfway around the world before succumbing to the scorching heat of atmospheric reentry. In June, the fourth test flight ended with controlled splashdowns of the rocket's Super Heavy booster in the Gulf of Mexico and of Starship in the Indian Ocean.

The primary objectives for SpaceX were stress-testing the new ship and avionics, catching the booster at the launchpad for potential reuse, deploying the dummy satellites in space, and a targeted water landing. It wasn't immediately known what caused the redesigned spaceship to fail.

SpaceX launched its Starship rocket from South Texas for its seventh test flight on Thursday, causing volatility not just on land this time, but also in the sky. After about eight and a half minutes of flight,

SpaceX launched its Starship mega-rocket for the seventh time. It achieved an epic booster catch, but the ship was lost.

While the Starship is lost, the mission's first-stage booster successfully returned to the launch tower, where it was caught by the tower's robotic arms.

Hours after Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin nailed its first-ever orbital mission, SpaceX seized back the spotlight on Thursday as its latest test of Starship, its gargantuan next-generation mega rocket, ended with the upper stage dramatically disintegrating over the Atlantic.

SpaceX completed its seventh launch of the Starship rocket, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched its New Glenn rocket into orbit and a NASA astronaut stuck in space went on her first spacewalk in seven months.