Boca Chica, Texas — SpaceX launched its colossal Starship rocket on Tuesday evening for the ninth time, marking a significant step forward in development — even as the spacecraft lost control mid-flight and disintegrated over the Indian Ocean.

The 403-foot-tall (123-meter) vehicle lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility at the southern tip of Texas, a location recently voted into cityhood by local residents. Designed for future missions to the Moon and Mars, the Starship was making its most ambitious test flight yet.

Despite a successful launch, the mission encountered multiple setbacks. A planned release of mock satellites was aborted when a payload door failed to fully open. Moments later, the spacecraft began to spin uncontrollably in orbit. SpaceX later confirmed what it calls a “rapid unscheduled disassembly,” a euphemism for the vehicle breaking apart.

“Teams will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test,” the company said in an official statement.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk downplayed the failure, calling the attempt a “big improvement” compared to the two most recent Starship launches, which ended in fiery explosions over the Atlantic. Writing on X (formerly Twitter), Musk said SpaceX is now aiming to launch a new Starship every three to four weeks, accelerating its testing timeline.

This flight was notable for featuring a reused booster for the first time. Unlike previous attempts where the booster was recovered using massive robotic arms — nicknamed “chopsticks” — this flight pushed the hardware to its limits with no recovery planned. The booster ultimately broke apart and fell into the Gulf of Mexico.

Compounding the mission’s problems, the upper-stage Starship began to tumble, apparently due to a fuel leak, as it approached a planned splashdown zone in the Indian Ocean.

“Not looking great with a lot of our on-orbit objectives for today,” said SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot during the company’s webcast, which was cut shortly after communication was lost with the vehicle.

Engineers had hoped to gather valuable data on the heat shield during reentry, part of a series of upgrades tested in this flight. Thermal protection tiles and special fittings were among the improvements. While the spacecraft was intended to sink after splashdown, the goal was to simulate future capture techniques for reusable vehicles.

This latest test comes as SpaceX faces mounting pressure from NASA, which is relying on the Starship program for its Artemis moon missions. The space agency is counting on Starship to ferry astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface and back. A crewed flyby of the Moon is slated for next year, with the first lunar landing mission tentatively scheduled for 2027.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cleared the latest launch only last week, following a safety review. To minimize disruption to commercial air traffic, the FAA expanded the flight’s hazard zone and scheduled liftoff outside peak travel hours.

Though the repeated failures may seem discouraging, SpaceX maintains that each test offers critical data as it refines what is currently the most powerful rocket ever built. No injuries or serious property damage have been reported from any of the test flights.

For SpaceX, Tuesday’s partial success and dramatic failure underscore the high-risk, high-reward nature of rapid innovation in spaceflight.