"spacex"

The launch and ascent of Starship serial number 8 (SN8) were successful, but as the engines appeared to reignite for landing, the vehicle flipped back to vertical and then slammed into the ground, Xinhua reported.

Revealing this for the first time during an interview for The Wall Street Journal's annual CEO Council summit, Musk said: "California has been winning for a long time, and I think they're taking it for granted".

The crew is comprised of three Americans -- Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker -- and Japan's Soichi Noguchi.

This is the first of what NASA calls “operational” flights of the Crew Dragon.

Musk, who is having symptoms of a "typical cold" and "nothing unusual so far," did four tests on Thursday.

The requirement of replacing the engines became apparent after an investigation into the aberrant behaviour of the Falcon 9 rocket observed during a recent non-NASA mission launch attempt, Space.com reported on Wednesday.

The 13th Starlink launch was completed on Sunday from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Originally scheduled for October 31st, the planned six-month mission was delayed as Elon Musk-run SpaceX evaluates off-nominal behaviour of Falcon 9 first stage engine gas generators observed during a recent non-NASA mission launch attempt.

It is expected that there will be gigabit speeds on offer, meaning up to 1Gbps Internet speeds, with a fairly low latency of up to 25ms.