Nasa: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket 'breaks up' in launch failure

A rocket exploded two minutes after liftoff from Florida, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station in the latest in a string of mishaps in supplying the orbiting outpost.

An unmanned Space Exploration Technologies is 208-foot-tall (63-metre) rocket, built and flown by the company known as SpaceX that is owned by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk. It had previously made 18 successful launches since its 2010 debut.

Those included six cargo runs for Nasa under a 15-flight contract worth more than $2 billion.

American space agency Nasa said its SpaceX vehicle " experienced an anomaly on ascent" before breaking up.

Nasa has said that the SpaceX vehicle which due to carry space station supplies has "broken up" after "something went wrong with the launch".