SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded just minutes into its seventh test flight, an unexpected setback after the Elon Musk-led company had made steady progress advancing the vehicle’s capabilities.

Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, pulled off a daring booster catch on its most ambitious test flight yet, but the spacecraft was lost. Follow for the latest news.

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

SpaceX is set to launch the seventh test flight of its Starship megarocket on Thursday (Jan. 16), and you can watch the action live. The 400-foot-tall (122 meters) Starship is scheduled to lift off from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas Thursday at 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT; 4 p.m. local Texas time).

The third Starship test flight last March saw the spacecraft reach its planned trajectory and fly halfway around the world before succumbing to the scorching heat of atmospheric reentry. In June, the fourth test flight ended with controlled splashdowns of the rocket's Super Heavy booster in the Gulf of Mexico and of Starship in the Indian Ocean.

Alexandra found "beauty in failure" after the latest SpaceX mission took an unexpected turn. "The SpaceX rocket exploded, causing debris to streak across the sky, creating a surprisingly beautiful sight,

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has suspended SpaceX rocket flights following the explosion of the upper stage of the Starship/Super Heavy. An investigation is necessary due to the space debris that fell to Earth after the explosion.