Published: 7:22am, 17 Jan 2025 Updated: 3:58pm, 17 Jan 2025 Hours after Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin nailed its first-ever orbital mission , SpaceX seized back the spotlight on Thursday as its latest test of Starship, its gargantuan next-generation megarocket, ended with the upper stage dramatically disintegrating over the Atlantic. Advertisement In terms of sheer excitement, Elon Musk’s company didn’t disappoint, underscoring its technical prowess by catching the first stage booster in the “chopstick” arms of its launch tower for a second time. But the triumph was short-lived when teams lost contact with the upper stage vehicle. SpaceX later confirmed it had undergone “rapid unscheduled disassembly”, the company’s euphemism for an explosion. A taller, improved version of the biggest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built blasted off from the company’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, at 4.37pm for its seventh test. SpaceX’s mega rocket Starship and booster separate. Photo: AP The gleaming prototype rocket is key to Musk’s ambitions of colonising Mars, while Nasa hopes to use a modified version as a human lunar lander. Advertisement