A major incident occurred when a space capsule from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company was launched.
Shortly after the launch of an unmanned capsule carrying research equipment in the US state of Texas, the launch vehicle crashed to the ground on Monday, according to Blue Origin.
The capsule itself is undamaged, as it was able to detach itself from its carrier using an emergency system.
Blue Origin released a short video on Monday showing the capsule separating from the launch vehicle.
The US aviation authority said it was investigating the incident.
The now failed start of the research capsule was the 23rd flight as part of the New Shepard program, named after the first US citizen in space, the astronaut Alan Shepard.
All previous launches had been uneventful.
So far, 32 people have traveled to space as part of the program, including Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and former Star Trek actor William Shatner.