After back-to-back Starship upper stage failures, SpaceX on Tuesday again launched the world's most powerful rocket, but faced new problems.

SpaceX has made several hardware changes and improvements to the rocket since its last test flight, which was foiled by an engine anomaly.

SpaceX launched its ninth test flight of Starship Tuesday before losing contact an hour later as the spacecraft broke apart upon re-entry. The first-stage Super Heavy booster also exploded before splashdown.