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

Although the flight did not end as well as SpaceX officials hoped, the company made some tangible progress Tuesday. Most importantly, it broke the streak of back-to-back launch failures on Starship's two most recent test flights in January and March.

The consecutive failures may have decreased the likelihood SpaceX can meet NASA’s goal of landing on the moon in 2027, experts said.

Get live updates on the Starship rocket launch from SpaceX's Starbase headquarters in Texas. See what time it launches, where to watch and news on Musk's company.

The spacecraft began spinning as it skimmed space toward an entry in the Indian Ocean. The first-stage booster ended up in the Gulf of Mexico in pieces.

SpaceX just sent another batch of its Starlink internet satellites aloft from Florida's Space Coast. A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 27 satellites launched the Starlink 10-32 mission from NASA's Kennedy Space Center today (May 28) at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT).

Musk will discuss progress and next steps toward building a human presence on the Red Planet ahead of Starship’s ninth test flight today.

Tuesday will be SpaceX’s ninth launch of Starship, a spacecraft designed to be fully reusable, and is following two previous launches that ended in explosions.

Much was riding on Flight 9 for Elon Musk’s giant moon and Mars rocket after debris from January and March flights fell into the Atlantic Ocean, disrupting air travel.

Starbase was officially formed earlier this month after Elon Musk's aerospace and defense contractor prevailed in a local election