SpaceX loses Starship spacecraft during seventh test flight

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- SpaceX launched the seventh test flight of its giant Starship rocket on Thursday, but lost communication with its spacecraft shortly after launch.

Starship took off from the company's Starbase facility near Brownsville in the U.S. state of Texas at about 4:37 p.m. Central Time.

Shortly after the launch, Starship's Raptor engines ignited during hot-staging separation. The rocket's Super Heavy booster successfully returned to launch site, and repeated "chopsticks" catch -- catching the returning booster using mechanical "chopsticks," called "Mechazilla," on the launch tower.

But the Starship spacecraft lost communication with ground.

Starship experienced a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" during its ascent burn, SpaceX confirmed on X.

"Teams will continue to review data from today's flight test to better understand root cause," said SpaceX. "With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's flight will help us improve Starship's reliability."

The seventh test flight launched a new generation ship with significant upgrades, and planned to attempt Starship's first payload deployment test, fly multiple reentry experiments geared towards ship catch and reuse, and launch and return the Super Heavy booster.

With the disassembly of the spacecraft, the only objective achieved was launching and catching the Super Heavy booster on land.

SpaceX's Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket, collectively referred to as Starship, represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the moon, Mars and beyond.

Starship plays a key role in NASA. It is the vehicle that NASA selected to carry astronauts on the final leg of their trip to the moon during a mission called Artemis III, currently planned for 2026.