Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship rocket explodes mid-flight after launch

SpaceX's Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, exploded on Thursday 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 8:33 a.m. Central Time (1333 GMT) from Starbase, the private SpaceX spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas.

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

However, despite the claims by the SpaceX experts that clearing the tower was the only hope for SpaceX and that everything after clearing the tower was icing on the cake, the video footage of Elon Musk's upset expressions after explosion is going viral on the internet.

The integrated test flight was intended to assess their performance in combination.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk had warned ahead of the launch that technical issues were likely and sought to play down expectations for the inaugural test flight.