Aviation regulator diverts flights from four airports in Florida to avoid falling debris.
SpaceX’s Starship exploded shortly after takeoff, marking the second launch failure this year for Elon Musk’s interplanetary exploration program.
However, Musk’s rocket company managed to successfully return its massive first-stage booster to the launchpad after Thursday’s test flight, capturing it with its giant mechanical “chopsticks” for the third time.
SpaceX’s livestream showed the Starship spacecraft spinning uncontrollably in space just minutes after lifting off from the company’s launch site in Boca Chica, Texas.
“You can see we’ve lost several engines and we’ve lost attitude control for the vehicle,” SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said during the livestream.
“Once you lose enough of those center engines, you’re going to lose attitude control,” Huot added.
“And so, we did see the ship start to go into a spin, and at this point, we have lost contact with the ship.”
Footage posted on social media showed fiery debris streaking across the skies of South Florida and the Bahamas as remnants of the spacecraft reentered Earth’s atmosphere.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily halted flights to four Florida airports, including Miami International Airport, due to falling debris.
The aviation regulator stated it had also launched a “mishap investigation” to “determine the root cause of the event and identify corrective actions to prevent it from happening again.”
This mixed outcome follows SpaceX’s seventh test flight in January, which ended with the mid-flight breakup of the Starship, forcing airlines to divert flights to avoid debris.
In a statement after Thursday’s unsuccessful launch, SpaceX said the spacecraft had “experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly” before contact was lost.
“Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses,” the company said on X (formerly Twitter).
“We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand the root cause. As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.”
NASA has contracted SpaceX to develop its Starship for use in the Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the moon by the end of this decade.
Musk, the world’s richest person, has stated he hopes to use Starship to fulfill his long-term vision of establishing a permanent colony on Mars by 2050.
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