SpaceX's Starship spacecraft disintegrated soon after launch on Thursday, but thousands of miles away another new rocket enjoyed an easier ride on its first commercial mission.

Earlier in the day, some 3,200 miles southeast of SpaceX’s Starbase launch site in Texas, another rocket, the Ariane 6, achieved a flawless mission on only its second flight, after lifting off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou in French Guiana.