It’s the second consecutive failure this year for Elon Musk’s Mars-bound rocket program. SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft exploded on Thursday just minutes after liftoff from Texas. Several videos on social media show fiery debris streaking across the dusky sky near southern Florida and the Bahamas following the Starship’s disintegration in space, which occurred shortly after the rocket began spinning uncontrollably when its engines shut down.
The failure—broadcast live on SpaceX’s stream—comes just over a month after Starship’s seventh flight also ended in an explosion. These consecutive incidents occurred during mission phases that SpaceX had previously successfully surpassed, signaling major setbacks for a program Musk has been pushing to accelerate this year.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly halted commercial air traffic at airports in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, and Orlando, as well as over some Caribbean islands, due to “falling space debris.”
There may be a potential clash ahead between Musk, now head of the DOGE department, and the federal agency: the FAA announced the opening of an investigation into the incident, stating that SpaceX will have to analyze the failure’s causes and obtain FAA approval before Starship can fly again.
The 123-meter (403-foot) rocket had lifted off around 6:30 PM ET (23:00 GMT) from SpaceX’s facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, with the Super Heavy booster successfully returning to land as planned.
But minutes later, SpaceX’s live feed showed Starship’s upper stage spinning in space, with indicators showing multiple engine shutdowns before the company confirmed it had lost contact with the spacecraft.
“Unfortunately, this happened last time too, so we’ve got some practice now,” SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot commented during the broadcast.
The rocket was not transporting astronauts. SpaceX stopped the livestream shortly after launch and did not provide details on where the debris might have fallen.
In an online post, SpaceX stated that “the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost”. The company said its team was coordinating with safety officials and it would review flight data to understand the root cause of the explosion, adding, “Success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.”
