First Test Flight: SpaceX Starship, world’s biggest rocket, explodes

SpaceX's Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, exploded yesterday during the first test flight of the spacecraft designed to send astronauts to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

The gigantic rocket successfully blasted off at 8:33am Central Time (1333 GMT) from Starbase, the private SpaceX spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas.

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The Starship capsule had been scheduled to separate from the first-stage rocket booster three minutes into the uncrewed flight but separation failed to occur and the rocket blew up.

Despite the failure to complete the full flight test, SpaceX declared it a success.

"With a test like this, success comes from what we learn ... ," SpaceX tweeted.

Starship consists of a 164-foot tall spacecraft designed to carry crew and cargo that sits atop a 230-foot tall first-stage Super Heavy booster rocket.

The US space agency Nasa has picked the Starship spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the Moon in late 2025 -- a mission known as Artemis III -- for the first time since the Apollo programme ended in 1972.