The fortunately uncrewed rocket took off just after 7 am and made it eight minutes into flight before SpaceX lost contact with it and had to intentionally explode the Starship spacecraft as it flew over the ocean.

The failed flight came after months of arguing between Musk and the regulators over whether his rocket was safe to fly or not. Musk insisted that it was red tape that was keeping his rocket grounded and you didn’t need all those health and safety inspections.  It would appear he was channelling his inner Stockton Rush, only in this case, he was not piloting the disaster.

After separating from the Super Heavy rocket booster, the Starship spacecraft soared to an altitude of approximately 93 miles (150 kilometres) before SpaceX lost contact, according to a statement issued by the company.

For context, the US government considers 50 miles (80 kilometres) above Earth's surface the edge of outer space so at least he got that far this time.

Musk described Starship as the vehicle that underpins SpaceX's founding purpose: sending humans to Mars for the first time.

Still it is odd that when governments were racing to the moon 50 years ago considerably faster, they were doing a better job at leaving earth than corporates.