Sunday 09 / March / 2025
Florida: For the second time this year, a SpaceX Starship test flight exploded shortly after takeoff on Thursday.
Ground control lost contact with the spacecraft just minutes after it launched. As it broke up into fiery debris, the FAA was forced to halt air traffic at several airports in Florida.
The explosion disrupted about 240 flights, including requiring more two dozen airplanes to divert over space debris concerns. Four Florida airports, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Palm Beach, were impacted as aircraft were required to be grounded for just over an hour.
171 departures were delayed, 28 flights were diverted, and 40 airborne flights were held an average of 22 minutes while the agency's Debris Response Area was active.
Why did the SpaceX Starship explode?
SpaceX confirmed that the Starship experienced "a rapid unscheduled disassembly" during the ascent engine firing.
Thursday's mishap comes almost two months after a similar incident, marking the second failure for the company owned by billionaire and unofficial presidential aide Elon Musk.
The 403-foot (123-metre) rocket took off from the SpaceX Boca Chica facility in Texas at around 6:30 p.m. local time (2330 GMT).
The first stage of the flight was successful, with the booster separating and flying back to Earth, to be caught in midair by a crane.
But then the upper part of the Starship began to spin as multiple engines shut down.
"Unfortunately this happened last time too, so we've got some practice now," SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said on the SpaceX live stream of the event.
