Following the explosive failure of the Starship megarocket’s January 16 test flight, residents of the British territory were left with debris-strewn roads and beaches.

A SpaceX Starship rocket disintegrated spectacularly just minutes after liftoff, raising questions about the risks of modern space exploration. The incident caused disruptions in air traffic and highlighted the challenges private space companies face.

Going forward, SpaceX is likely to offer its gigantic Starship rocket as a competitor to New Glenn, and here, the advantage shifts back to SpaceX. Bigger than New Glenn (120 meters tall versus 98) and with a wider faring to encapsulate cargo (9 meters versus 7), SpaceX's Starship will boast a massive payload advantage over Blue Origin's new rocket.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made light of Starship's fiery end. "Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!" he said on X.

SpaceX launched Starship on Thursday for a seventh test flight, after weather concerns pushed back an experiment that will feature the spacecraft’s first payload deployment test, and while it successfully caught the Super Heavy Booster, Starship lost connection and “experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

Dramatic footage showing streaks of light zipping across the sky surfaced online following Elon Musk's Starship explosion over the Atlantic Ocean.

Want to grab yourself a literal piece of space race history? Now you can, on eBay! Pieces of the recently exploded Starship rocket are making their way to the auction site, ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to several thousand, depending on the size of the chunk and where on the spacecraft it comes from.

After the successful booster recovery, SpaceX officials reported losing contact with the spaceship toward the end of the ascend.

While Elon Musk’s spaceflight company repeated a spectacular catch of its powerful booster stage, the upper stage experienced a catastrophic malfunction.

Elon Musk's company saw mixed results today, with Starship's booster sticking the landing while the upper stage failed during ascent.