Starship Breaks Up Over Indian Ocean During Reentry

This story has been updated with new developments. SpaceX's mega rocket blasted off on another test flight Thursday, this time with the spacecraft reaching enough speed to coast toward its finish line halfway around the world. It outperformed the previous two test flights, which both ended in explosions over the Gulf of Mexico minutes after liftoff. The first two flights last year lasted mere minutes before blowing up over the Gulf of Mexico. Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, soared from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border and headed out over the gulf, the AP reports. No people or satellites were on board. More:

• Minutes later, the booster separated seamlessly from the spaceship and splashed down into the gulf. The spacecraft continued on its flight eastward, reaching an altitude of 100 miles and approaching orbital speed—outperforming the previous attempts.
• After around 45 minutes, it began reentry, but communications were lost within a few minutes, the New York Times reports. SpaceX says the spacecraft didn't survive—CNBC notes it broke up over the Indian Ocean—but the flight achieved some important milestones. On its livestream, the company said it was "incredible to see how far we got this time around," per the BBC.

• "Each of these flight tests continue to be just that: a test," SpaceX said in a mission description. "They aren't occurring in a lab or on a test stand, but are putting flight hardware in a flight environment to maximize learning."
• SpaceX said the mission would attempt "a number of ambitious objectives, including the successful ascent burn of both stages, opening and closing Starship's payload door, a propellant transfer demonstration during the upper stage's coast phase, the first ever re-light of a Raptor engine while in space, and a controlled reentry of Starship."
• CNN reports that the opening and closing of the payload door and a propellant transfer demonstration went ahead, but SpaceX says reviews will need to be carried out to judge how successful they were.

(More Starship stories.)