SpaceX launches Starship on highest test flight, crash-lands

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – SpaceX’s shiny, bullet-shaped Starship soared several miles into the air from a remote corner of Texas.

But Wednesday’s 6 1/2-minute test flight ended in an explosive fireball at touchdown.

It was the highest and most elaborate test yet for the rocketship that Elon Musk says could carry people to Mars in as little as six years.

SpaceX was aiming for an altitude of eight miles.

This full-scale, stainless steel prototype soared out over the Gulf of Mexico, then flipped sideways as planned and dropped back to the southeastern tip of Texas near the Mexican border.

It burst apart at the very end, as it attempted to land upright.