An old NASA satellite that studied the sun for more than a decade fell to Earth over the Sahara Desert, the space agency reported Thursday.

SpaceX's giant new rocket exploded minutes after blasting off Thursday on it first test flight and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.

Elon Musk's company was aiming to send the nearly 400-foot (120-meter) Starship rocket on a round-the-world trip from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. It carried no people or satellites.

Images showed multiple engines weren't working on the 33-engine rocket as it climbed from the launch pad, reaching as high as 24 miles (39 kilometers.)

The flight plan had called for the booster to peel away from the spacecraft minutes after liftoff, but that didn't happen. The rocket began to tumble and then exploded four minutes into the flight, plummeting into the gulf.

Under a cloudless sky, 20,000 eclipse chasers crowded a tiny outpost to watch a rare solar eclipse plunge part of Australia's northwest coast into brief midday darkness Thursday while temporarily cooling the tropical heat.

SpaceX prepared to launch the biggest and most powerful rocket Thursday, working nonstop after the first shot at a test flight fizzled earlier in the week.

The nearly 400-foot (120-meter) Starship was poised to blast off from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. SpaceX's Elon Musk gave 50-50 odds of the spacecraft reaching orbit on its debut.

None of the rocket will be recovered. Instead, if all goes well, the first-stage booster, dubbed Super Heavy, would drop into the Gulf of Mexico.