Elon Musk admits 'spending too much time on politics' after watching SpaceX rocket explode

Elon Musk has conceded that his political engagements may have been a distraction after another Starship prototype met a fiery end.

The tech mogul faced tough questions from the press when the 403-foot rocket spectacularly failed its ninth test flight, breaking apart after lifting off from its launch site.

Reflecting on the incident, Musk remarked: "I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics," acknowledging the impact of his advisory role to former President . Last month, the 53-year-old entrepreneur hinted at scaling back his political involvement to focus more on his business ventures.

Despite the media's magnification of his political activities, insists he hasn't neglected his companies: "It's less time than people think (on politics), because the media is going to over-represent any political stuff, because political bones of contention get a lot of traction in the media."

He admitted to an imbalance in his time allocation: "It's not like I left the companies. It was a relative time allocation that probably was a little too high on the government side, and I've reduced that significantly in recent weeks."

The latest Starship explosion, believed to be caused by fuel leaks, resulted in debris scattering across the Gulf of Mexico, marking yet another setback for SpaceX's ambitious project, reports the

SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot has expressed doubts about the day's mission, saying: "Not looking great with a lot of our on-orbit objectives for today."

Following uncertainties in orbit, SpaceX issued an online statement, saying: "Teams will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test."

The news strikes yet another blow to Elon Musk, the ambitious founder of SpaceX created in 2002. After a recent setback, he discussed the situation with MSNBC, snippets of which have been circulated on their social media platforms.

Musk, who took on an advisory role for President Trump following his return to office, also revealed a shift in political strategy. Sharing his thoughts, he told MSNBC: "I think I've done enough. In terms of political spending I'm going to do a lot less in the future."

As for his SpaceX endeavours, Musk is under pressure to advance Starship development, slated as the largest rocket ever constructed, targeting moon landing missions. Despite plans for a non-landing lunar circumnavigation next year, a surface landing won't take place until 2027 at the earliest and will depend on the Starship to shuttle two astronauts between lunar orbit and the moon's surface.