Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship rocket blows up minutes after launch

Largest and most powerful rocket ever built blasts off on test flight that is hoped to be step on human journey to Mars

The largest and most powerful rocket ever built has blasted off from Texas but blew up within minutes in a test flight that its makers, SpaceX, hope will be the first step on a human journey to Mars.

After a cancelled launch earlier this week because of a pressurisation issue, the 120-metre Starship rocket system took off at 8.33am local time (2.33pm in the UK) on Thursday. It gathered speed, but then started to spin at altitude before exploding about four minutes after leaving the ground.