Federal agencies have offered exits to millions of employees and tested the prowess of engineers — just like when Elon Musk bought Twitter. The similarities have been uncanny.

SpaceX on Wednesday night launched a Spanish communications satellite from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and retired the first-stage booster rather than landing on a drone.

Liftoff is scheduled for 8:34 p.m. ET tonight (Jan. 29).

SpaceX launched Starship on Thursday for a seventh test flight, after weather concerns pushed back an experiment that will feature the spacecraft’s first payload deployment test, and while it successfully caught the Super Heavy Booster, Starship lost connection and “experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

After the successful booster recovery, SpaceX officials reported losing contact with the spaceship toward the end of the ascend.

Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, pulled off a daring booster catch on its most ambitious test flight yet, but the spacecraft was lost. Follow for the latest news.

Starship experienced a "rapid unscheduled disassembly," which is a phrase SpaceX coined to describe an explosion.

The "rapid unscheduled disassembly" was likely caused by a propellant leak, Elon Musk said, and was captured on video by spectators on the ground.

SpaceX was targeting launch of the SpainSat satellite during a two-hour launch window which opened at 8:34 p.m. ET. Liftoff was right on time without delay. The rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A and traveled on an eastern trajectory.

The two stuck astronauts took their first spacewalk, exiting the International Space Station almost eight months after moving in.

Even so, Mr Ellison remains the world’s fifth-richest man, and Oracle the third-biggest software firm. He has a thing or two to teach fellow tech titans, in particular his friend Elon Musk, about staying power.