SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded minutes after liftoff, with debris reaching Philadelphia and flights being delayed in a couple of states, including Florida.
This was the rocket’s eighth test flight. Similarly to the previous attempt, it ended in the 400-foot-tall rocket disintegrating Thursday. It appeared some of the engines had failed and the rocket was spinning out of control.
The unmanned rocket was launched just after 6:30 p.m. EST. Videos of the rocket posted on social media platforms showed Starship breaking up in the air.
The rocket, which took off from Texas near the city of Brownsville, exploded, but SpaceX was able to capture the booster from the Starship as it landed back at the launch tower.
“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,” SpaceX said in a Thursday post on X, shortly after the incident.
The space techonlogy company, headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk, said it will “review the data” from Thursday’s flight 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,” SpaceX said.
The rocket’s disintegration delayed departures at several airports across the country, the data from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) showed.
Departures from Florida’s two airports — Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport — were delayed by up to 45 minutes due to “space launch debris.”
The departures from the Philadelphia International Airport were delayed by upwards of half an hour for the same reason, according to the FAA data.
The FAA said Thursday that it is “requiring SpaceX to perform a mishap investigation into the loss of the Starship vehicle during launch operations on March 6.”
“During the event, the FAA activated a Debris Response Area and briefly slowed aircraft outside the area where space vehicle debris was falling or stopped aircraft at their departure location,” the FAA wrote in a statement. “Normal operations have resumed.”
