In an unfortunate turn of events for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, their latest rocket to launch was destroyed in a fireball just ten minutes after takeoff.

SpaceX’s latest test flight proved to have more issues than anticipated and Musk has since spoken out on the latest incident.

On Thursday (January 16) its Starship rocket – thankfully holding no passengers – broke up over the Gulf of Mexico, reportedly causing commercial airlines to change routes to avoid falling debris.

The incident occurred just eight and a half minutes into the flight from Texas, after the spacecraft’s six engines began shutting down one by one during ascent.

After the rocket launch, its booster made its planned return to the ground and after momentarily hovering over the launchpad before being caught by two mechanical arms.

However, minutes later, SpaceX confirmed they had lost contact with the rocket.

A host on SpaceX’s livestream said: “At this point in time, we can confirm we did lose the ship. It looks like we lost contact a little under eight and a half minutes into the flight.”

Videos on social media showed burning debris from the rocket streaking across the sky, reportedly over the Turks and Caicos Islands.

SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot admitted the company had hoped for a more successful situation.

The rocket booster successfully returned to the launchpad (Sky News)

He said: “It was great to see a booster come down, but we are obviously bummed out about ship. It’s a flight test. It’s an experimental vehicle.”

After the incident, Musk took to Twitter and made it clear that he didn’t consider this more than a ‘bump in the road’.

He commented: “The booster flight was a success, the ship flight was 1/4 successful, hence cup being ~5/8 full.

“New ship forward flaps, higher thrust engines and tile adherence on ascent were tested.

“Improved heat shield performance was the only major thing that wasn’t tested, along with the “Pez” payload dispenser. Probably solved in next month’s launch.

Elon Musk called the incident nothing more than a ‘bump in the road’ (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“The 9 meter diameter version of Starship will probably fly ~10,000 times, so this is barely a bump in the road. Doesn’t change the likely date at which Mars becomes self-sufficient.”

On the SpaceX Twitter page, they explained they would be reviewing data from the flight test to better understand what went wrong.

The page reiterated that successes come from learning from the mistakes of the day.

However, the company did face ridicule when they called the destruction of the rocket an ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’.

A flight from SpaceX is set to see the first space walk conducted by a private company.

The very first space walk was achieved on March 18 1965 when Soviet astronaut Aleksey Leonov floated in space for 12 minutes.

Since then, space walks have become a common part of astronauts’ trips up into space.

Crew will go on space walks to conduct research or to carry out maintenance on the International Space Station (ISS).

On February 7 1984 US astronaut Bruce McCandless II became the first person to take a hair-raising space walk without a tether connecting him to the capsule.

A picture shows McCandless II floating out by himself surrounded only by the curvature of the Earth and the inky void of space.

While the crew of the SpaceX ship will be staying firmly tethered to the craft, they will be the first civilians to carry out a space walk.

Previously all space walks have been carried out by people working as part of a government-sponsored programme.

A SpaceX rocket or LoveHoney’s latest release? (CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

The SpaceX mission, called ‘Polaris Dawn’ blasted off today (September 10) with four private citizens on board.

It is setting off on a five-day-long mission which will take the capsule out into high orbit.

In fact, the aim is to take the capsule into the highest orbital altitude reached by humans since the last Apollo mission to the Moon more than 50 years ago in 1972 – a staggering 870 miles above the surface of the Earth.

The launch had been due to set off in late August, but was pushed back following a helium leak at the launchpad.

It then saw a further setback due to averse weather conditions off the coast of Florida, which is where the capsule would land when it returned to Earth.

The mission’s crew prior to their departure (Jonathan Newton/The Washington)

Now, however, the mission is finally underway with the four-person crew on board.

This includes billionaire Jared Isaacman, retired Air Force Lt Col Scott ‘Kidd’ Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.

Isaacman, who has an estimated net worth of $2 billion, is also funding the mission in partnership with SpaceX.

The billionaire has also previously flown in the first all-civilian mission to orbit in 2021.

He and Gillis will exit the spacecraft on a tether on the third day of the mission.

However, the craft itself does not have a pressurised airlock, meaning that the entire craft will need to be depressurised for the duration of the walk.

The astronauts will be wearing and testing newly designed space suits for the mission.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been chosen for a multibillion-dollar NASA mission to a nearby moon.

A Falcon Heavy rocket will launch the space agency’s Dragonfly mission from Kennedy Space Center in Florida between July 5 and July 25 2028.

SpaceX was awarded a $256.8 million contract, which NASA says includes ‘launch services and other mission related costs.’

Dragonfly will explore the largest of Saturn’s 146 moons, Titan, which is about 50 percent wider than Earth’s moon.

NASA said a rotorcraft will be used to ‘sample materials and determine surface composition in different geologic settings, advancing our search for the building blocks of life.’

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy will launch NASA’s Dragonfly mission (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The journey to Titan takes six years, meaning NASA’s spacecraft doesn’t land until 2034, while the mission is costing $3.35 billion.

So, what is it about Saturn’s moon that makes it worth exploring?

Well, Titan is the second largest moon in our solar system – bigger than our own, as well as the planet Mercury.

Only Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is larger, by just two percent.

Its atmospheric pressure is about 60 percent greater than on Earth—roughly the same pressure you’d feel swimming roughly 50 feet (15 meters) below the surface in the ocean.

Titan is Saturn’s largest moon (NASA via Getty Images)

Meanwhile Titan’s temperature is a freezing -290 degrees Fahrenheit (-179 degrees Celsius) – but despite this, it contains water.

We all know what that means… it could potentially harbor environments with conditions suitable for life.

As NASA previously explained: “The discovery of a global ocean of liquid water adds Titan to the handful of worlds in our solar system that could potentially contain habitable environments.

“Titan’s rivers, lakes and seas of liquid methane and ethane might serve as a habitable environment on the moon’s surface, though any life there would likely be very different from Earth’s life.”

Artist’s concept of rotorcraft Dragonfly exploring Saturn’s moon Titan (NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)

But its unique make-up means evidence of both life as we know it – in the subsurface ocean – and life as we don’t know it – in the hydrocarbon liquid on Titan’s surface – could possibly be found.

NASA added: “Most scientists agree that life as we know it would be unlikely on this bizarre world.

“But the study of Titan, the most Earth-like body in the solar system will help us understand our own Earth and even help guide the design of future missions… that are designed to search for Earth-like planets beyond our solar system.”

Thus far, there’s been no sign of life on Titan, but its complex chemistry and unique environments is what has scientists so intrigued.

One of Saturn’s other moon, Enceladus – which roughly measures 300 miles across and is made of ice – has often cited as our best chance of finding extraterrestrial life in our solar system.

A 21-year-old video of Elon Musk has emerged online where the tech mogul shared his plans for SpaceX.

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, and fast forward to today, it has become a leader in the space industry.

It’s said to have a value of around $180 million, while Musk himself has a net worth of almost $355 billion – making him the richest man in the world.

A year after he launched SpaceX, the businessman gave a speech at Stanford University where he outlined his strategic plans for his space company.

While a lot has changed in 20 years, Musk’s plans for SpaceX have not.

In the video that’s been doing the rounds on Twitter (X) of late – which is now owned by the multibillionaire – a youthful-looking Musk says: “Our approach is really to make this a solid, sound business.

“I predicated the strategic plan on a known market, something that we know for a fact exists, which is the need to put small to medium-sized satellites into orbit.”

Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 (Paul Harris/Getty Images)

He continued: “That’s what we’re going after initially. And then, with that as a revenue base, we will move into the human transportation market.

“The long-term aims of the company are definitely human transportation.

“I think the smart strategy is to first go for cargo delivery, essentially satellite delivery.

“And our eventual upgrade path is to build the successor to Saturn V, build a super-heavy lift vehicle that could be used for setting up a moon base or doing a Mars mission.

“That would be the holy grail objective.”

And Musk stood to his plans, recently achieving one of his goals of sending people to space.

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21 years ago

ELON CLIPS

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Here’s Elon Musk in 2003 outlining the strategic plan SpaceX has been following until today. “Our approach is really to make this a solid, sound business. I predicated the strategic plan on a known market, something that we know for a fact exists, which is the need to put small…

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On September 10 of this year, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was launched into space for a five-day flight.

Billionaire Jared Isaacman went on to become the first person to take part in a private spacewalk, which was documented in ‘gorgeous’ footage.

Isaacman and the rest of the team on board Falcon 9 were sent up to space to test a new series of slimmer spacesuits, all while marking ‘the first time four humans [have been] simultaneously exposed to the vacuum of space’ coming out of a capsule with no safety airlock as well.

Adding to the momentous achievement, all four people were civilians rather than trained astronauts for NASA or the military.

Alongside billionaire Isaacman were retired Air Force Lt Col Scott ‘Kidd’ Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.