SpaceX Starship explodes, disrupts air travel a second time

Millions of viewers who tuned into Thursday’s broadcast of SpaceX Starship’s eighth test flight experienced a collective déjà vu as the mammoth rocket exploded and rained down flaming hunks of metal in eerily similar fashion to Flight 7. So too did pilots flying over the Caribbean ocean, many of whom were forced to change course to avoid the falling debris.

Starship and the Super Heavy Booster — which tower more than 400 feet (120 meters) when stacked — lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase launch pad in Texas at 6:30 p.m. EST. After separating, Super Heavy flipped itself around, relit most of its engines, and headed back to the launch pad for the firm’s third successful booster catch. That capability is key to enabling Starship launches at a higher cadence.

The ship’s upper stage, though, was not as lucky — it lost control moments later, spinning out of the sky like a flaming pinwheel before blowing up. As of Friday, no injuries or property damage have been reported.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who in the past has offered early assessments of Starship mishaps, has yet to weigh in on the cause of Thursday’s explosion beyond calling it an “upper stage/ship failure.”

In another post, Musk said the incident is a “minor setback” and predicted Starship would fly again in four to six weeks.

“Progress is measured by time,” the SpaceX boss said.

What went wrong?

SpaceX offered more details in its postflight update, describing an “energetic event in the aft portion” of Starship that occurred before it could reach cruising altitude. That led to the loss of “several” Raptor engines, attitude control, and communications about 9 minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff.

The company will likely share more information soon, as it did following Flight 7. Per that analysis, a “harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing” stressed Starship’s propulsion system and caused fuel leaks, sparking a fire. Notably, that blaze also occurred in the aft section of the vehicle, where SpaceX said it made upgrades designed to better handle a leak.

Both incidents prompted the FAA to activate a debris response area, which it does only when debris escapes a closed zone based on the vehicle’s flight path. Like last time, though, SpaceX said any debris that survived the explosion “would have fallen within the pre-planned Debris Response Area.”

Debris response

As was the case during Starship’s previous mission, the FAA swiftly activated a debris response area to warn nearby pilots and temporarily slowed aircraft. Multiple flights operated by carriers including Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and JetBlue were diverted or rerouted to their origin, per data from FlightRadar24. Several airports in Florida — and reportedly even as far away as Philadelphia International Airport (KPHL) — experienced ground stops or delays.

In total, the FAA told FLYING, 171 departures were delayed by an average of 28 minutes while the debris response area was active. Twenty-eight flights were diverted, while another 40 were placed in holding patterns for an average of 22 minutes.

The Turks and Caicos Islands Government Communications Directorate released a statement saying it was in touch with the FAA and SpaceX to determine the location of the “rapid unscheduled disassembly,” the company’s preferred term for explosions.

SpaceX also said in a postflight update that it “immediately” began coordinating with the FAA, air traffic organization (ATO), and other safety officials.

The FAA on Thursday said it is opening a mishap investigation — standard when a mission does not go as planned — into the loss of Starship. The agency authorized Flight 8 even as SpaceX was still wrapping up its investigation into the prior mishap, a process that typically culminates in a modified launch license. The firm bypassed that step after a comprehensive FAA safety review deemed it safe to launch. Both missions used a more powerful version of Starship, Block 2, that had not flown previously.

Diversions, groundings, and reroutes

It is unclear if any pilots took evasive maneuvers to avoid falling debris. But multiple airports have confirmed delays to outgoing flights and inbound diversions.

Orlando International Airport (KMCO), the busiest in Florida, was placed under a ground stop due to “space launch debris in the area,” it said in an update on X. About 15 minutes later, the airport said the FAA had lifted the ground stop and normal operations resumed.

A spokesperson for Miami International Airport (KMIA) told FLYING some flights were delayed due to falling debris. American Airlines had three diversions from other airports and two returns to Miami. Flights out of KMIA and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (KFLL) were reportedly delayed up to 45 minutes, with delays at Philadelphia International Airport extending about half an hour.

A Tampa International Airport (KTPA) spokesperson told FLYING the airport experienced no delays but received three diversions — two flights bound for Miami and one for San Juan, Puerto Rico — that departed later that evening. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood also took in three diversions tied to the incident, a spokesperson said.

A setback for Starship?

With Thursday’s incident, Starship has now been grounded after exploding in midair on half (four out of eight) of its test flights. SpaceX’s investigations into the first two mishaps spanned several months. Flight 8 was the first time the FAA let Starship fly with a pending investigation. But with two cases now open, it’s unclear when the rocket will be back in action.

Notably, Flights 7 and 8 were the inaugural launches of Starship’s Block 2 configuration, which among other upgrades is designed to hold 25 percent more propellant. The company hopes to introduce an even more robust Block 3 Starship in the near future. With two explosions in two attempts, it will first need to iron out the kinks.

The curtailed mission also missed several planned objectives. Starship during its cruise phase was supposed to attempt another in-orbit engine relight — a capability it will need to stabilize itself during operation — and release its first payload, four Starlink satellites, to orbit. But it never got there.

SpaceX had also planned a series of experiments designed to set the stage for catching the Starship upper stage: the removal of some heat tiles, the installation of new ones with different materials, and a reentry profile intended to test the limits of its flaps. That data could have accelerated the path to making Starship and Super Heavy fully reusable.

SpaceX will need to launch the rocket more frequently to meet its obligations for NASA, which is paying it to design a human landing system (HLS) variant of Starship’s upper stage. That vehicle is assigned to deposit four NASA astronauts at the moon’s south pole in 2027. But to get there, it will need to stop and fuel up at an orbital propellant depot. Stocking that depot, by NASA’s estimate, will require eight to 16 Starship tanker flights.

In the short term, more frequent Starship missions could help SpaceX conduct testing and gather data needed to develop HLS and tanker variants. This year, for example, it hopes to transfer supercooled propellant between two Starships that will launch separately but meet in orbit. The company has proposed ramping up annual launches at Starbase and this week said it is starting work that would enable operations on Florida’s Space Coast.

Editor’s note: A version of this story first appeared on FLYING.