SpaceX Starship spacecraft explodes minutes after liftoff

The spacecraft was about to begin an orbital test flight that would have taken it from Texas to the Pacific near Hawaii.

"A rapid unscheduled disassembly." This is how SpaceX defined the explosion of its Starship spacecraft minutes after liftoff Thursday in Texas. The launch of the test flight had to be delayed on Monday 17 due to technical problems.

In the video of the launch, the spacecraft is seen starting to rotate and then explodes. As explained by company spokespersons during the live broadcast, the failure occurred when part of the ship should have separated from the rest.

Starship is the largest spacecraft in history which Elon Musk's company and NASA plan to use to take astronauts to the moon starting in 2025.