SpaceX's Starship exploded over the Indian Ocean in a fiery failure, delivering another setback to Elon Musk's ambitious plan to colonize Mars.
The 403-foot rocket - the largest and most powerful ever built - launched at 6:36 pm CDT Tuesday from SpaceX's Starbase facility in southern Texas, near a village recently voted to become a city, also named Starbase.
The mission aimed to deploy eight Starlink satellite simulators and test the vehicle's reentry system by removing 100 heat-shield tiles, according to Fox News.
Although launch and initial ascent went smoothly, the Super Heavy booster suffered a catastrophic failure when its engines reignited for splashdown.
SpaceX confirmed the loss of the booster but noted the failure was expected given the extreme test conditions.
