Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship spirals out of control before exploding in third consecutive mission failure

The rocket, launched from Musk's 'Starbase' - a new 'city' built by the billionaire in southern Texas - late on Tuesday, was seen to spin out of control around 30 minutes into its mission.

Following what appeared to be a successful launch, fuel leaks were blamed for the catastrophic failure, with the rocket seen to break-up upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

"Our chances of making it all the way down to the Indian Ocean are pretty slim," a SpaceX commentator was heard to remark during the livestream.

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The latest launch attempt is the latest setback for Musk, further plunging his intergalactic ambitions into doubt.

The Starship rocket marked the first major test for Musk’s plans to colonise Mars since two explosions in 2025.

It comes amid Elon Musk's ambition to “make life multi-planetary” - with the tech billionaire cancelling a proposed speech following the failure.

As the rocket was seen to break up upon re-entry, SpaceX announced the Starship had undergone a “rapid unscheduled disassembly”.

With Musk watching on, the tech tycoon was seen to wear a t-shirt which read: “Occupy Mars”.

The highly-publicised launch was set to act as a springboard for Musk's interplanetary plans, with the tycoon preparing to publicly set out his vision for the eventual colonisation of Mars.

Who is Elon Musk?

Answering some of the questions posed by the internet.

• How old is Elon Musk? 53 (born June 28, 1971)
• What are Elon Musk’s businesses? Musk is the leader of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter, which he has renamed as X
• How many children does Elon Musk have? Musk has had 14 children with four women: Shivon Zilis, Justine Wilson, Grimes, and Ashley St Clair. His children are: Nevada, Vivian, Griffin, Kai, Saxon, Damian, X Æ A-12, Exa, Strider, Azure, Techno, Arcadia, Seldon Lycurgus and Romulus. Nevada sadly died at 10 weeks old
• How did Elon Musk get rich so quick? Musk is from a wealthy South African family but made his name in the 1990s with various tech start ups before founding SpaceX and becoming an early investor in Tesla, taking it over fully in the mid to late 2000s. The company has become a leader in the production of electric vehicles
• What is Elon Musk’s ‘five minute rule’? One productivity technique that Musk swears by is doing a task straight away if it takes five minutes or less. Musk breaks down his day into five minute slots and fills these with very specific tasks
• Has Elon Musk been diagnosed with anything? In 2021, Musk said he had Asperger's syndrome - a form of autism. The term is no longer used to distinguish from autism but has been previously given as a diagnosis to mark out someone who has greater social skills or higher performance than others on the spectrum
• Does Elon Musk have British citizenship? No, he is believed to have a Canadian, British and South African passport - although he could certainly afford to pay up should he wish to obtain UK citizenship!

Musk had previously branded his colonisation plans for Mars a “life insurance for life collectively” should planet Earth face imminent destruction.

The mission marked SpaceX’s first launch since the unplanned explosion of one of its earlier rockets, with the catastrophic failure grounding flights out of Florida after flaming debris was seen to fall from the skies.

With parallels between that failure and this recent attempt, the satellites carried on the earlier mission could not be deployed because of a malfunctioning door hatch.