Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship prototype rocket exploded over the Indian Ocean on Tuesday following a test flight. This marking another setback for Elon Musk’s Mars colonisation plans. The largest ever built rocket was launched from Starbase, Texas which is newly incorporated city. The uncrewed rocket, operated by SpaceX, marked the third consecutive high-altitude test failure.

Though the ship flew farther than on its two previous attempts, it sprang leaks and began spinning out of control as it coasted through space on a suborbital path before re-entering the atmosphere out of control and eventually breaking apart.

The spacecraft, launched from Boca Chica, encountered multiple issues after lift off, including a fuel leak and structural failure, despite completing its engine cut off phase. The rocket was part of Musk’s long-term goal to deploy Starship for missions to the Moon and Mars.

SpaceX’s ninth test of the Starship system began successfully with a liftoff from its Texas launch facility but ended in failure during reentry. This marks the third time the vehicle has been lost during testing, following similar outcomes in January and March.

A livestream hosted on its platform showed the Super Heavy booster exploding shortly after stage separation. The upper-stage Starship continued its flight but later suffered a fuel leak and spinning instability before disintegrating upon atmospheric reentry.

Despite the explosion, Musk emphasized a milestone. Starship rocket achieved scheduled engine cut off with no major heat shield damage. However, he acknowledged the main tank pressure loss due to leaks during the coast and descent phase.

These failures during the test flight are guiding SpaceX in its iterative development model, where each flight provides critical data to improve its system’s reliability.

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Meanwhile, SpaceX has said the Starship models that have flown this year bear significant design upgrades from previous prototypes, as thousands of company employee’s work to build a multi-purpose rocket capable of putting massive batches of satellites in space, carrying humans back to the moon, and ultimately ferrying astronauts to Mars.

The Starship is designed to eventually be fully reusable and launch at low cost, carrying Elon Musk’s hopes of making humanity a multi-planetary species.