Starship Flight Ends in Midair Disintegration

by The_unmuteenglish

South Texas, 17 January 2025: A SpaceX Starship rocket disintegrated minutes after launch from South Texas, triggering disruptions to airline routes over the Gulf of Mexico and delivering a setback to Elon Musk’s rocket program.

The newly upgraded Starship, carrying a test payload of mock satellites, launched at 5:38 p.m. EST (2238 GMT) from the company’s Boca Chica site. However, contact with the spacecraft was lost eight minutes into its flight.

“We did lose all communications with the ship—that essentially tells us we had an anomaly with the upper stage,” SpaceX Communications Manager Dan Huot said. Minutes later, he confirmed the vehicle’s destruction.

Footage captured by Reuters showed glowing debris streaking across the night sky over Port-au-Prince, leaving smoky trails. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported briefly redirecting and delaying flights to avoid potential hazards. According to flight-tracking platform FlightRadar24, departures from Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports faced delays of around 45 minutes, with several other flights rerouted.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk acknowledged the setback in a post on X, sharing a video of the debris field and remarking, “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!”

The FAA stated it created a “debris response area” beyond the standard closed airspace to ensure safety after the rocket failure. Though space launches regularly prompt temporary airspace restrictions, mishaps like these leading to widespread travel disruptions remain rare.

The incident marked Starship’s first upper-stage failure since March last year, when a similar issue occurred over the Indian Ocean. The mishap also came a day after Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin successfully launched its New Glenn rocket, highlighting the competitive challenges in the commercial space race.

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