SpaceX’s shiny, bullet-shaped Starship has exploded during touchdown after a six-and-a-half-minute test flight in a remote corner of Texas. It was the highest and most elaborate flight yet for the rocket ship that Elon Musk says could carry people to Mars in as little as six years. Despite the catastrophic end, Musk was thrilled. “Mars, here we come!!” he tweeted. The SN8 prototype – the first one equipped with a nose cone, body flaps and three engines – was shooting for an altitude of up to eight miles (12.5km). That’s almost 100 times higher than previous hops and skimming the stratosphere. Starship seemed to hit the mark or at least come close. There was no immediate word from SpaceX on how high it went. The full-scale, stainless steel model — 160ft (50m) tall and 30ft (9m) in diameter – soared out over the Gulf of Mexico. After about five minutes, it flipped sideways as planned and descended in a free-fall back to the southeastern tip of Texas near the Mexican border. The Raptor engines reignited for braking and the rocket tilted back upright. When it touched down, however, the rocketship became engulfed in flames and ruptured, parts scattering. The entire flight – as dramatic and flashy as it gets, even by SpaceX standards – lasted six minutes and 42 seconds and was broadcast live on its website. Repeated delays over the past week and a last-second engine abort Tuesday heightened the excitement among space fans. Musk called it a “successful ascent” and said the body flaps precisely guided the rocket to the landing point. The fuel tank pressure was low, however, when the engines reignited for touchdown, which caused Starship to come down too fast. “But we got all the data we needed!” he tweeted. Musk had kept expectations low, cautioning earlier this week there was “probably” a one-in-three chance of complete success. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who founded the Blue Origin rocket company, offered swift congratulations. “Anybody who knows how hard this stuff is is impressed by today’s Starship test.” Two lower, shorter SpaceX test flights earlier this year from Boca Chica, Texas – a quiet coastal village before SpaceX moved in – used more rudimentary versions of Starship. Essentially cylindrical cans and single Raptor engines, these early vehicles reached altitudes of 490ft (150m). An even earlier model, the short and squat Starhopper, made a tiny tethered hop in 2019, followed by two increasingly higher climbs. Wednesday’s test comes days after SpaceX’s latest space station supply run for Nasa, and less than a month after the company’s second astronaut flight from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. Starship is actually the upper stage of Musk’s envisioned moon- and Mars-ships. It will launch atop a mega booster still in development known as the Super Heavy. The entire vehicle will tower 394ft (120m) , or 31ft (9.4m) taller than Nasa’s Saturn V rocket that sent men to the moon half a century ago. SpaceX intends to use Starship to put massive satellites into orbit around Earth, as well as deliver people and cargo to the moon and Mars. Earlier this year, SpaceX was one of three prime contractors chosen by Nasa to develop lunar landers capable of getting astronauts on the moon by 2024. Right before Wednesday’s launch, Nasa introduced the 18 US astronauts who will train for the Artemis moon-landing program. While accepting an award in Berlin last week, Musk said he’s “highly confident” of a human flight to Mars in six years or “if we get lucky, maybe four years”. But Musk is the first to admit his timelines can be overly optimistic.