SpaceX Starship Destroyed in Third Straight Fiery Test Setback

SpaceX’s colossal Starship rocket suffered a leak, tumbled out of control in space and disintegrated as it hurtled back to Earth during a test flight on Tuesday, the third setback in a row for the Elon Musk-led company.

The launch system, composed of the Starship upper portion and its Super Heavy booster, thundered off the company’s launchpad in South Texas at around 6:36 p.m. local time. As the rocket lifted off, around 1.1 million people tuned in on X.

A few minutes into the flight, the recycled Super Heavy booster separated from the Starship upper portion and fired ...