A SpaceX Starship rocket exploded in space just minutes after its launch from Texas on Thursday, prompting airline flights over the Gulf of Mexico to change their routes to steer clear of falling debris and delaying Elon Musk’s flagship rocket program.
SpaceX mission control experienced a loss of communication with the newly upgraded Starship, which was transporting its inaugural test payload of mock satellites without any crew, just eight minutes after it launched from its South Texas rocket facilities at 5:38 p.m. EST (2238 GMT).
Footage captured by Reuters displayed orange orbs of light darting through the sky above the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, leaving trails of smoke in their wake.
“We did lose all communications with the ship – that is essentially telling us we had an anomaly with the upper stage,” SpaceX Communications Manager Dan Huot said, confirming minutes later that the ship was lost.
The most recent failure of a Starship upper stage occurred in March last year during its reentry into Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. However, it is uncommon for a SpaceX incident to lead to significant disruptions in air traffic.
Numerous commercial flights were redirected to different airports or changed their routes to steer clear of possible debris, as reported by the flight tracking website FlightRadar24. Departures from airports in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, experienced delays of approximately 45 minutes, it noted.
The Federal Aviation Administration, responsible for overseeing private launch activities, indicated that it had temporarily slowed and redirected planes in the vicinity of the falling space debris, but normal operations have now returned to standard procedures.
The FAA regularly closes airspace for space launches and reentries, but it can create a “debris response area” to prevent aircraft from entering if the space vehicle experiences an anomaly outside the originally closed zone.
SpaceX CEO Musk posted a video on X showing the debris field and said: “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!”
The failure came a day after Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos’, successfully launched its giant New Glenn rocket into orbit for the first time.
