Elon Musk attempted to put a spin on the latest test rocket from SpaceX exploding into pieces during its return to Earth on Wednesday morning, calling it a “great achievement.”

SpaceX’s Starship 9, which blasted off from Mr. Musk’s new Texas city, Starbase, late Tuesday evening, traveled farther than previous test flights this year, but after an hour in orbit the rocket began to spin out of control before undergoing a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

The former DOGE head, who has recently turned his focus back to SpaceX and his other companies, was in Starbase for the launch. After the explosion, he attempted to stay positive on social media.

“Starship made it to the scheduled ship engine cutoff, so big improvement over last flight,” Mr. Musk wrote on X. “Also, no significant loss of heat shield tiles during ascent.”

“Leaks caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and reentry phase. Lot of good data to review.”

In a subsequent post, Mr. Musk continued to celebrate the launch. “Great achievement by the @SpaceX team,” he wrote.

The latest launch was the first in which one of SpaceX’s Starships had used a recycled rocket booster with no plans to catch it back at the launch pad, opting instead to test it to its limits, according to the Associated Press. 

The launch team reportedly lost contact with the booster before it broke into pieces and slammed into the Gulf of Mexico. The spacecraft continued toward the Indian Ocean before fuel leaks led it to spin out of control, preventing the team from properly testing the spacecraft’s heat shield during reentry.

“Not looking great with a lot of our on-orbit objectives for today,” the SpaceX flight commentator, Dan Huot, said.

Mr. Musk was due to hold a press conference after the launch, but it was eventually canceled.

The launch comes after reports that Mr. Musk said in a new interview that he is “disappointed” by President Trump’s “big beautiful bill,” recently passed by House Republicans.

“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” he said during a sit-down with CBS’s “Sunday Morning,” which is scheduled to air this coming weekend.