SpaceX’s Starship exploded on Thursday minutes after takeoff from Texas, dooming an attempt to launch artificial satellites for the second consecutive time this year as part of Elon Musk’s Martian rocket programme.
Several videos on social media show flaming debris streaking across the twilight sky near South Florida and the Bahamas after the Starship spacecraft crashed shortly after it began spinning uncontrollably with its engines off, as shown on a live broadcast of the SpaceX mission.
That failure came just over a month after the company’s seventh Starship flight also ended in an explosive crash. The string of failures early in the mission, which SpaceX had easily overcome earlier, point to serious glitches in a programme that Musk has sought to accelerate this year.
The 123-metre rocket system lifted off at about 6:30 p.m. from SpaceX’s vast rocket complex in Boca Chica, Texas, and its super-heavy first stage booster returned to the ground as planned. But minutes later, SpaceX’s live feed showed Starship’s upper stage spinning in space, while visualisations of the rocket’s engines showed several engines shutting down before the company confirmed it had lost contact with the craft.
“Unfortunately, that happened last time as well, so now we have some practice,” Dan Huot, a SpaceX spokesman, said on the live stream.
There were thankfully no astronauts aboard the rocket. SpaceX stopped the live broadcast shortly after the launch and did not say where the debris would fall.
SpaceX posted online that “the vehicle underwent a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost.” The company said its team is coordinating with safety officials and will review flight data to understand the root cause of the explosion, adding, “Success depends on what we learn, and today’s flight will provide additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.”
Airports closed, flights suspended where debris fell
As debris was scattered across parts of the Caribbean, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly suspended passenger flights at Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Orlando airports due to “space launch debris” until at least 8 p.m. Flights were also diverted to the Turks and Caicos Islands area.
The FAA said it has launched an investigation into the incident and will require SpaceX to investigate the cause of the malfunction and obtain agency clearance before Starship can fly again.
The failure to launch Starship for the first time since the January 16 explosion in space has dealt a blow to Musk’s development vision. He aims to build a rocket capable of sending large batches of satellites into space, as well as people to the moon and Mars.
Starship’s failure in January ended eight minutes into its flight when the rocket exploded in space, showering the Caribbean islands with debris. The explosion was caused by a fire near a liquid oxygen tank on the ship. At the time, the FAA temporarily suspended commercial flights and ordered SpaceX to investigate. SpaceX said it has since made changes to fuel lines and fuel temperatures.
