Marita Moloney
Live reporter

Mission control at Starbase will likely be still coming back down to Earth after what SpaceX hailed as an exciting launch of its uncrewed spacecraft Starship.

The company hopes Starship will transform the economics of space, with the eventual goal to build a spacecraft that can take people and cargo back to the Moon later this decade - and ultimately to Mars.

That dream is still alive for owner Elon Musk.

This second test flight went further and higher than the maiden launch in April, but with some technical problems persisting, including the booster exploding and contact being lost with the upper-stage Ship eight minutes in.

"If SpaceX engineers can make Starship work as designed, it will be revolutionary," our science correspondent says, and engineers will use today's test to continue working towards SpaceX's "multiplanetary" goal.

Today's coverage was brought to you by our colleagues in the Science team Jonathan Amos and Rebecca Morelle, as well as Sam Hancock and myself.

Want to learn more? You can read or watch how today's launch unfolded, as well as delving deeper into everything you need to know about Starship. Thanks for joining us.

So how successful was this launch?published at 15:23 Greenwich Mean Time 18 November 2023

15:23 GMT 18 November 2023

Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent

There’s no doubt that SpaceX will consider this a great day. The major problems that beset April’s maiden flight were overcome.

Starship made what appeared to be a clean getaway, all the engines on the first-stage booster worked on the way up hill, and the Ship made its separation on time at two minutes and 40 seconds, continuing onwards into space.

And, yes, it got to space, about 140km up. So, SpaceX will take all this as a win.

They’ll want to review why the Ship’s computers terminated its flight, and also why the booster tore itself apart shortly after separation. But these are questions for tomorrow.

Image source, EPA

SpaceX already has the next iterations of Starship lined up in Texas ready to make their test flights. These launches will come thick and fast now.

Remember the words of Garrett Reisman, a former Nasa astronaut, SpaceX consultant, and professor of astronautical engineering at the University of Southern California.

"I think the benefit of this rapid development approach is even though things don't look good at first, when things are blowing up - you learn so much and so quickly that you actually do converge on the correct solution much faster than if you try to get something 100% perfect the first time.

"SpaceX does seem to get there in the end."

Rebecca Morelle
Science editor

Image source, NASA

This SpaceX rocket is set to play a vital role in Nasa’s Artemis programme, which will return humans to the Moon.

While the astronauts will begin their journey on Nasa’s rocket called the SLS, inside its capsule called Orion, they’ll then transfer into Starship, which will take them down to the lunar surface.

But there’s a lot to do before this can happen.

SpaceX will need to move beyond the testing phase to see a number of successful launches.

They’ll also need to try out refuelling Starship in space - it will need to have extra fuel to make it all the way to the Moon. And then there’s developing and testing the technology that will ensure Starship can safely touch down - and lift off - from the lunar surface.

Nasa has an ultra ambitious timeline for the Artemis project. It says it wants to have astronauts on the Moon by late 2025.

But the US space agency has had plenty of delays of its own, and Starship is moving more slowly than was expected. So, it’s looking very likely that humanity’s return to the Moon will see that timeline slip in a major way.

But Nasa’s not totally reliant on SpaceX. It also has a contract with Blue Origin - Jeff Bezos’s rival company - to provide another lunar landing system.

Elon Musk's company SpaceX launched Starship - the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built - for a second time from Starbase in Texas today.

The top part of the rocket - the Ship - successfully separated from the booster, which then exploded. Contact with the Ship was later lost when computers terminated the flight.

Here's how the launch unfolded, with reporting from the BBC's science correspondent Jonathan Amos:

Just over an hour ago, we watched Elon Musk's huge Starship rocket take off for a second time from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX has hailed the mission as a success, considering it got further than its first attempt in April to achieve new milestones. But the two segments of the rocket - the booster and the Ship - did eventually self-destruct over ocean waters.

Here's some images from today's launch:

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

SpaceX owner Elon Musk has congratulated his team following today's Starship rocket launch.

The company also hailed an "exciting" second flight test, saying: "Starship successfully lifted off under the power of all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster and made it through stage separation."

It added, as we reported earlier, that the booster experienced "a rapid unscheduled disassembly shortly after stage separation while Starship's engines fired for several minutes on its way to space".

Image source, Reuters

Nasa chief Bill Nelson has tweeted to congratulate the SpaceX teams "who made progress on today’s flight test".

"Spaceflight is a bold adventure demanding a can-do spirit and daring innovation. Today’s test is an opportunity to learn - then fly again," he said, external.

Starship's computers command a terminationpublished at 13:52 Greenwich Mean Time 18 November 2023

13:52 GMT 18 November 2023

Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent

Up to a point, that was an incredibly successful launch.

What we saw was the Starship rocket launch from Texas and get through the crucial staging - the separation of the two halves of the rocket.

The top part, the Ship, carried on. It was supposed to continue on its powered ascent for about eight-and-a-half minutes.

But just before that milestone, the computers on board basically destroyed the vehicle.

Why? Because eventually the velocity of this vehicle - at about 140km above the Earth - would've taken it over Africa. If something was wrong, which clearly there was, then the computers would've destroyed the vehicle at the earliest opportunity so the debris came down over the Atlantic Ocean and not on land over Africa.

Rebecca Morelle
Science editor

Image source, Reuters

It was a spectacular launch for the world's biggest and most powerful rocket.

It was all looking good as it blasted skywards into the blue Texan sky.

The second test flight got further than the first – the two parts of the rocket separated as planned.

But then things started to go awry – the bottom booster exploded after it detached – not too big a problem, as it had already done its job of sending the upper-stage skywards.

But then a few minutes later the news came through that the top part of the rocket - the Ship - had been lost, too.

So is this a success or failure?

Well, losing a rocket would usually be seen as “not nominal”, which in space lingo means not ideal, but SpaceX has a different philosophy.

They’ll be analysing all of the data from this – learning what went wrong – then they’ll have another go.

Today was hailed as incredibly successful by SpaceX engineers, despite the Super Heavy booster experiencing what is known as "a rapid unscheduled disassembly".

SpaceX has insisted that explosions during the early stages of rocket development are welcome and help inform design choices faster than ground tests.

The second launch was more successful than the company's first attempt in April, and any data gathered from today will be used to influence future modifications to the rocket.

A SpaceX engineer has said in the last few minutes that the team has lost the data from the second stage of this flight.

"We have lost the data from the second stage... we think we may have lost the second stage," SpaceX's livestream host John Insprucker said.

The team has now signed off on its live feed of the launch. It's unclear what this means for the rocket's flight.

The next stage in this launch is re-entry, but it's not clear what kind of images we're going to see of this, SpaceX engineers say.

It's now coming up on the projected time that the Ship would shut off its engines, mission control says.

"What a successful day this has been so far," an engineer speaking on SpaceX's live feed says.

Stage separation has now happened, with the Ship segment still in flight with all six of its engines firing.

But the Super Heavy booster exploded, which wasn't the plan for SpaceX engineers.

Image source, Reuters

There are cheers at the SpaceX centre in Texas, where dozens of staff are gathered - watching on as the mammoth rocket's second flight gets under way.

Image source, SpaceX

The most powerful rocket ever developed has left the launch pad in Texas for the second time, with a massive roar as 33 engines on the Super Heavy booster power it skywards.

A planned hold is now taking place at t-minus 40 seconds until lift-off.

"Teams are using this time for final checks. All systems continue to look good for today’s flight test," SpaceX says on X.

We're waiting to see whether it will lift off in the next few seconds.

The SpaceX live feed has a countdown to the launch. It's now one minute until the launch. We're of course all waiting to see if it happens.

"Propellant loading complete. Starship is fully loaded with more than 4,500 metric tons (10 million pounds) of propellant," SpaceX has just posted on X.