The spacecraft’s engines shut down, and contact soon was lost. SpaceX says it will take time to figure out what went wrong.

SpaceX successfully guided Starship’s booster back to a landing site in Texas but lost the main spacecraft around 10 minutes into the flight. The test flight was the seventh attempt from Boca Chica, Texas.

The US has grounded SpaceX's giant Starship rocket while an investigation is carried out into why one exploded during its latest test flight. The rocket's upper stage dramatically broke up and disintegrated over the Caribbean after launching from Texas on Thursday, forcing airline flights to alter course to avoid falling debris.