ISS astronauts witness Starship exploding and falling back to Earth

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) were greeted with a spectacular sight thanks to SpaceX's recent Starship launch.

NASA astronaut and current ISS member Don Pettit took to X to share some photographs of the upper stage, which is the spacecraft itself or the part of the rocket that's designed to hold cargo and crew, exploding as a result of an "energetic event" causing the spacecraft to lose altitude and eventually communications with SpaceX. Shortly after communications were severed, Starship initiated its RUD protocol, or Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly, which can be translated into boom.

The event was captured by NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who wrote on X, "We saw the Starship 8 breakup in the upper atmosphere and fall back to Earth from the ISS". While the spacecraft part of Starship exploded the booster, or Super Heavy returned back to the launch pad and was caught for the third time in a row by the Mechazilla launch tower.

While the launch was a success in terms of Super Heavy making it back to the launch pad, it does highlight a hurdle SpaceX must overcome in order to achieve its long-term goal of creating the world's first rapid, fully reusable rocket capable of transporting cargo to the surface of the Moon and Mars - getting the spacecraft part of the rocket back on the surface of Earth in one piece and not many small fiery pieces.

The challenge here, which Elon Musk outlined in a recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, is the heat shield on the upper stage. For more information on how this is an extremely difficult problem to solve, check out the below link.

• Read more: Elon Musk reveals the biggest problem SpaceX is facing with Starship