SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft exploded in space on Thursday, minutes after launching from Texas, marking the second consecutive failure this year for Elon Musk’s Mars-bound rocket program. The explosion prompted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to briefly halt air traffic in parts of Florida due to falling debris.
Social media footage captured fiery fragments streaking across the skies near South Florida and the Bahamas after the spacecraft lost control and its engines shut down. SpaceX’s live stream showed the upper stage spinning uncontrollably before communication was lost.
This failure, the eighth in the Starship program, comes just over a month after a similar incident in January. Both explosions occurred in early mission phases that had previously been successful, posing a setback to Musk’s efforts to accelerate the program. The 403-foot (123-meter) rocket is a critical component of his vision to send humans to Mars within the next decade.
The rocket lifted off around 6:30 p.m. ET (2330 GMT) from SpaceX’s Boca Chica launch site. While the Super Heavy booster successfully returned to Earth and was caught mid-air by a SpaceX crane, the upper stage malfunctioned. A SpaceX statement confirmed the loss of attitude control, which led to communication failure approximately nine minutes and 30 seconds into the flight.
SpaceX assured that the debris contained no toxic materials. In January, Starship’s explosion scattered debris over Caribbean islands, causing minor damage to a car in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The FAA has opened an investigation into the latest failure, requiring SpaceX to determine the cause and obtain regulatory approval before attempting another launch. The agency had only recently granted a launch license for this test while the previous incident was still under review.
Starship’s intended mission was to complete nearly a full orbit and re-enter over the Indian Ocean, simulating future landing procedures. The failure highlights ongoing challenges in developing the world’s most powerful rocket for deep-space missions.
