The Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday that it will require SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation after the failed test flight of Starship Flight 9 earlier this week. SpaceX’s Starship broke up upon reentry during its Tuesday test flight,

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.

Ground control lost contact with the spacecraft which broke apart after spinning out of control and reentering earth's atmosphere.