A SpaceX Starship rocket broke up in space minutes after launch from Texas on Thursday, forcing airline flights over the Gulf of Mexico to alter course to avoid falling debris and setting back Elon Musk’s flagship rocket program.

SpaceX Mission Control lost contact with the newly upgraded Starship, which was carrying its first test payload of mock satellites but without a crew, eight minutes after liftoff from its South Texas rocket facilities at 5:38 p.m. ET.

Video taken by Reuters shows orange orbs of light streaking across the sky over Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, leaving a trail of smoke. “We’ve lost all communications with the ship — that basically tells us we’ve had an anomaly with the upper stage,” SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said, confirming minutes later that the ship was lost.

The last time Starship’s upper stage failed was in March of last year as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, but rarely has a SpaceX mishap caused widespread disruption to air traffic.

Flights forced to divert

Dozens of commercial flights were diverted to other airports or changed course to avoid potential debris, according to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24. Departures from airports in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., were also delayed by about 45 minutes, it added.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which regulates private launch activity, said it briefly slowed and diverted planes around the area where space debris was falling, but normal operations have since resumed.

The FAA regularly closes airspace for launches and re-entries into space, but can create a “debris response area” to prevent aircraft from entering if a spacecraft experiences an anomaly outside the originally closed zone.

SpaceX CEO Musk posted a video on X showing the debris field and said, “Success is uncertain, but fun is guaranteed!”

The failure came a day after Blue Origin, the space company of billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, successfully launched its massive New Glenn rocket into orbit for the first time.

A higher version of the predecessor

The Starship’s upper stage, two meters taller than previous versions, was “a next-generation ship with significant upgrades,” SpaceX said in a mission description before the test. It was supposed to make a controlled descent into the Indian Ocean about an hour after launching from Texas.

Musk said a preliminary assessment of the failure showed that an internal leak of liquid oxygen fuel increased pressure and caused the rocket to disintegrate.

The FAA is likely to launch an accident investigation that would ground Starship — as the agency has done in the past — and examine whether debris from the rocket’s mid-flight explosion landed in populated areas or outside Starship’s predetermined danger zone.

The accident threatens to derail Musk’s goal of launching at least 12 Starship tests this year, depending on how quickly SpaceX can implement repairs and whether the FAA opens an investigation into the crash.

Musk critical of FAA

“There is nothing at this time to indicate that the next launch will be moved beyond next month,” Musk said.

The billionaire, who was appointed by US President-elect Donald Trump to a new job cutting government costs, has repeatedly criticized the FAA for overreaching and making politically motivated decisions.