The Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday that it will require SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation after the failed test flight of Starship Flight 9 earlier this week. SpaceX’s Starship broke up upon reentry during its Tuesday test flight,

Ground control lost contact with the spacecraft which broke apart after spinning out of control and reentering earth's atmosphere.

SpaceX 's ninth Starship test flight ended abruptly on Tuesday when the rocket experienced a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" — the company's favourite euphemism for "exploded." It's the third Starship test flight in a row to end in fiery failure, Elon Musk 's space company having had a poor run as of late.