Starship 's two stages separated as planned on Flight 9, and the upper stage even reached space, which was an improvement over the giant vehicle's most recent two flights. But SpaceX ended up losing both stages before they could accomplish their full flight goals.

After launch, an apparent propellant leak entered its suborbital trajectory left Starship spinning and mission control unable to control the craft.

After back-to-back Starship upper stage failures, SpaceX on Tuesday again launched the world's most powerful rocket, but faced new problems.