Another shot was snapped just after separation of the vehicle's two elements — the Super Heavy booster and Ship upper stage. This photo, taken from within Ship's engine bay, shows Super Heavy falling away, orange flame licking at its top, with the blue curve of Earth in the background.

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

SpaceX 's ninth Starship test flight ended abruptly on Tuesday when the rocket experienced a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" — the company's favourite euphemism for "exploded." It's the third Starship test flight in a row to end in fiery failure, Elon Musk 's space company having had a poor run as of late.