VIDEO: SpaceX Starship explodes, debris plummets to earth, airports ground flights

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From the New York Times: Starship — the huge spacecraft that Elon Musk says will one day take people to Mars — failed during its latest test flight on Thursday when its upper stage exploded in space, raining debris and disrupting air traffic at airports from Florida to Pennsylvania.

It was the second consecutive test flight of the most powerful rocket ever built where the upper-stage spacecraft malfunctioned. It started spinning out of control after several engines went out and then lost contact with mission control.

Photographs and videos posted on the social media site X by users saying they were along the Florida coast showed the spacecraft breaking up. The falling debris disrupted flights at airports in Miami, Orlando, Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, and as far away as Philadelphia International Airport.

The Starship rocket system is the largest ever built. At 403 feet tall, it is nearly 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty atop its pedestal.

The SpaceX lift-off site, known as Starbase, is located at Boca Chica, near Brownsville, Texas, a border town at the very southern tip of of the state.

When the Starship rocket lifted off around 6:30 p.m. ET Thursday evening, all initially went as planned, and huge booster successfully returned to the launchpad.

However, the rocket reportedly exploded and caused chaos for airports as debris then started falling from the sky.

How it started:

The booster was seen separating and heading back to earth, but then the camera went black on the rocket, as it lost contact with mission control.

The booster safely returned:

But the rocket exploded. Several videos have been posted to social media of the moment it is seen blowing up in the sky.

One X user caught the explosion on camera from aboard an airline flight.

The debris was seen over the Bahamas.

CNN’s Pete Muntean announced, “The FAA is halting flights into Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, and Orlando airports for “space launch debris” until at least 8 p.m. EST.”

A Starship builder @MoonManX22 lamented the loss, writing, “Flight 8 hit me hard. Watching Starship fall after pouring everything we had into it cuts deep. It hurts — because we care. Because we know what’s at stake. But pain is the price of progress. We’ll carry this loss, rise from it, and push harder than ever. Onward. #Starship.”

SpaceX later announced:

During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses.

We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause. As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.

Elon Musk said in a post on X, “Today was a minor setback. Progress is measured by time. The next ship will be ready in 4 to 6 weeks.”

“With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability. We will conduct a thorough investigation, in coordination with the FAA, and implement corrective actions to make improvements on future Starship flight tests,” SpaceX added.

SpaceX investor Dima Zeniuk wrote, “Important to note that Starship 8 is a test flight. SpaceX is working to improve the rocket and make it the safest in the world. It’s NOT a failure!”

Below is the full video of the explosion.

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