Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship rocket lands for first time before exploding in flames

SpaceX completed the first upright landing of the company's deep-space Starship rocket

Credit: SPACEX/Shutterstock 

"Starship 10 landed in one piece! RIP SN10, honorable discharge,” he said in a tweet.

"SpaceX team is doing great work! One day, the true measure of success will be that Starship flights are commonplace."

The Starship SN10 came much closer to completing a successful landing than the two other attempts by SpaceX. 

In December SN8 was also engulfed in flames, followed by SN9’s failure in February.

SpaceX’s livestream of the test run finished moments after the landing, but separate coverage showed the SN10 hurled into the air before slamming to the group. 

Musk hopes the ships will eventually carry humans and 100 tons of cargo on future missions to the moon and Mars.

The Starship rocket will be 394-feet (120 metres) tall when complete. It is a key part of Musk’s plans to make space travel routine and much more affordable. 

Musk said he hopes to fly the first civilians into space in 2023 by sending Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa around the moon with the Starship.