After back-to-back Starship upper stage failures, SpaceX on Tuesday again launched the world's most powerful rocket, but faced new problems.

SpaceX 's ninth Starship test flight ended abruptly on Tuesday when the rocket experienced a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" — the company's favourite euphemism for "exploded." It's the third Starship test flight in a row to end in fiery failure, Elon Musk 's space company having had a poor run as of late.

Ground control lost contact with the spacecraft which broke apart after spinning out of control and reentering earth's atmosphere.