By Joey Roulette WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A SpaceX Starship rocket broke up in space minutes after launching from Texas on Thursday, forcing airline flights over the Gulf of Mexico to alter course to avoid falling debris and setting back Elon Musk's flagship rocket program.

Starship experienced a "rapid unscheduled disassembly," which is a phrase SpaceX coined to describe an explosion.

Elon Musk's SpaceX's Starship test flight ended in failure as the spacecraft exploded and broke apart, following a suspected fuel leak in the engine firewall.

The latest flight of the SpaceX Super Heavy-Starship includes multiple upgrades to improve safety and performance of the world's most powerful rocket.

Shortly after Friday's rehearsal, SpaceX pushed Starship's seventh test flight to Wednesday. See the new schedule for the rocket's first 2025 flight.

After the successful booster recovery, SpaceX officials reported losing contact with the spaceship toward the end of the ascend.

SpaceX launched 21 of its Starlink internet satellites early Jan. 21, five days after a test flight of the company's Starship megarocket ended in an explosion.

Debris from the rocket's upper stage may have caused property damage, prompting an investigation into Starship's "rapid unscheduled disassembly."

James Temple was "in the right place at the right time" to take these dramatic images of SpaceX's Starship's seventh flight test disintegrating above the Atlantic Ocean

Elon Musk's SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket loaded with nearly two dozen Starlink communication satellites into space early Tuesday from Florida.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has suspended SpaceX rocket flights following the explosion of the upper stage of the Starship/Super Heavy. An investigation is necessary due to the space debris that fell to Earth after the explosion.