SpaceX launches Starship V3 for the first time, but loses booster on return

Key points

• SpaceX has launched the upgraded third version of its Starship rocket for the first time, though the test launch did not go perfectly for Elon Musk’s spaceflight company.
• The 407-foot rocket — the most powerful ever built — lifted off from SpaceX’s company town Starbase, Texas, at 5:30 p.m. local time.
• Just a few minutes later, the upper stage ship separated from the Super Heavy booster and continued on into space.
• The booster pitched away from the Starship vehicle and headed back to Earth, where it was supposed to perform a simulated landing in the Gulf of Mexico.
• But the booster’s engines did not properly re-ignite for the sustained burn that is meant to deliver it back to the launch site.