WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A SpaceX Starship rocket broke up in space minutes after launching from Texas on Thursday, forcing airline flights over the Gulf of Mexico to alter course to avoid falling debris and setting back Elon Musk's flagship rocket program.

Elon Musk, the genius billionaire behind Tesla, SpaceX, and now the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E), has vowed to cut wasteful spending in

President Donald Trump's new administration is likely to do away with the White House's National Space Council, a cabinet policy panel that lobbyists at Elon Musk's SpaceX have been pushing to axe, according to three people familiar with the plans.

SpaceX said the ship experienced “a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn,” moments after a dramatic, successful booster catch at the launchpad.

The incident in which a SpaceX rocket broke up after launch demonstrates the challenges the FAA will face as the number of commercial space flights increases.

Flawed rocket launches by SpaceX and Blue Origin still leave both companies in position to dominate the space sector.

After the most dramatic comeback in U.S. history, the new president has more power than before, and a better idea how to wield it.

A SpaceX Starship prototype failed in space on Thursday, minutes after launching from Texas, setting back the company's speedy rocket development efforts in a mission that was expected to debut a key satellite deployment demonstration.

Some of the most exclusive seats at President Donald Trump’s inauguration were reserved for powerful tech CEOs who also are among the world’s richest men.

President Donald Trump's "first buddy," Elon Musk, was seemingly everywhere in D.C. on Inauguration Day. Where (and with whom) was the billionaire?

Elon Musk has questioned the microchip claims made by DeepSeek AI, a fast-emerging player in the artificial intelligence pool, which is starting to challenge the United States' control over the AI industry. Newsweek has reached out to DeepSeek via email and Musk via X's press department for comment.

Elon Musk has been condemned as "a mixture of mad and right-wing extremist" by professor Jens-Christian Wagner, a historian who runs the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial, the largest in Germany.