The company announced Starship, a reusable rocket, in 2012. This rocket is designed to transport passengers to “Earth’s orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.” According to the SpaceX official website,

“SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket – collectively referred to as Starship – represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Starship is the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes expendable.”

Elon Musk’s Starship Has Exploded Midair For The Second Time

The Starship has completed eight test flights, two of which ended in midair explosions. The first midair explosion occurred in January during the 7th test flight, which exploded over Turks and Caicos.

This 8th flight took off from Texas on Thursday, March 6th, and around ten minutes into the flight, the 403-foot rocket began to spin out of control.

According to NPR, “SpaceX caught the first-stage booster back at the pad with giant mechanical arms, but engines on the spacecraft on top started shutting down as it streaked eastward for what was supposed to be a controlled entry over the Indian Ocean, half a world away. Contact was lost as the spacecraft went into an out-of-control spin.”

The debris scattered across the Caribbean and Atlantic.

After the explosion, a representative from SpaceX spoke out and shared a statement

“Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses. We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand the root cause. As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.”

 

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The Federal Aviation Administration Grounded Flights In Florida Due To Debris

Due to debris in the air over the Caribbean, the FAA grounded flights in Florida, affecting airports such as Miami International Airport (MIA) and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL). This marks the second time such an incident has occurred, and SpaceX stated that they have a protocol in place to address it.

Given that this is the second time this has happened SpaceX shared they had a protical in place.

SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot said, “Unfortunately, this happened last time, too, so we have some practice at this now.”

Flights resumed shortly after, but heavy delays continued for the remainder of the night.