Elon Musk: SpaceX rocket looses signal eight minutes into flight

A giant rocket fired by SpaceX, the spacecraft company owned by Elon Musk, has lost signal eight minutes into its flight from South Texas, according to reports. 

The powerful Starship reached 90 miles above earth this morning before losing contact, The New York Times has said, due to a possible “automated detonation”. 

It is the billionaire’s second attempt to launch the rocket, which is being built to potentially one day bring humans to Mars. 

It flew for the first time back in April before failing engines led to it collapsing and falling out of the sky. 

The second trip proved to be more successful after a number of reported changes were made to the craft. 

On X, formally known as Twitter, the SpaceX team said that today’s flight test would feature a new stage separation method on Starship “called hot-staging”. 

There were no people on board the second test flight.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX s said previously that the  Starship will be able to carry up to 100 people on long-duration interplanetary flights.

It will also enable the delivery of satellites and the development of a moon base, and point-to-point transport on Earth – allowing travel to anywhere in the world in one hour or less.

The stainless steel Starship is 120 metres tall, has 33 engines and 16.7 million pounds of thrust.