THE much-hyped launch of SpaceX’s Starhopper was aborted after the engine caught fire and sent flames shooting from the top of the rocket.
The rocket was supposed to take off and hover 20 metres above the ground as part of a test in Boca Chica Beach, Texas, US, on Wednesday.
But the test was called off when the Raptor engine burned for several second before shutting down and engulfing the spaceship in flames.
The Starhopper is a smaller scale version of the Starship rocket that Elon Musk's wants to send to the moon as early 2021.
SpaceX previously announced plans to send a group of artists around the moon on Starship in 2023.
The blaze was soon extinguished and the Starhopper appeared to suffer minimal damage.
During SpaceX's live stream of the launch, an official commentator said: "It appears as though we have had an abort on today's test as you can see there the vehicle did not lift off today.
"But as I mentioned before this is a development programme, today was a test flight designed to test the boundaries of the vehicle."
It comes one week after the Starhopper went up in flames during a static fire test.
The Starhopper is used to test the craft in live-fire environments and perform short flights.
SpaceX boss Elon Musk confirmed that fire had been caused by a "post test fuel leak" but added there had been "no major damage".
It is thought that the water jet may have caused the small fire to ignite the vapour, causing the fireball, according to Tech Crunch.
MOON MISSION IN 'TWO YEARS'
It has been hoped that the first commercial mission for SpaceX’s Starship would launch in 2021, but it is not known if the latest incident has caused those plans to be delayed.
SpaceX suffered a setback to its plans when it lost control of three satellites it had launched into Earth’s orbit just a few weeks before.
The Starlink probes were meant to form part of a huge network of satellites that will eventually beam high-speed internet to people on Earth.
In total, 60 satellites were successfully deployed into Earth's orbit on May 24 after a short flight aboard a SpaceX rocket.
But it was then admitted mission control had lost contact with some of them.
SpaceX boss Elon Musk has previously said he plans to send up nearly 12,000 satellites by the mid-2020s.
The company though had better success with the launch of the first ever solar powered “sailing” spacecraft.
It is hoped the vehicle could solve the issue of fuel storage in space which could expand the possibilities of further deep space travel.
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