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SpaceX’s seventh test flight of its marquee rocket, Starship, ended with an unexpected fireworks show. That is, the rocket exploded in the Atlantic Ocean, raining a bright stream of debris into the Earth’s atmosphere.
It is not clear what caused the explosion, but the event was captured on video by people on the ground and forced the planes to change course to avoid superheated pieces of falling rocketry.
The Starship was launched from SpaceX’s Starbase in Texas at 4:37 pm local time on Thursday. The company’s Mechazilla tower managed to catch the massive Starship (233-foot-tall, or 71-meter) Super Heavy booster rocket, is a calling card of SpaceX’s desire to make spaceflight a more effective and sustainable endeavor.
SpaceX lost telemetry with the vehicle before the burn phase was completed. It happened about 8.5 minutes into the flight. “Initial data indicates a fire developed in the rear part of the ship, which led to a rapid unscheduled disassembly,” according to a SpaceX release.
In other words, the upper stage of the rocket dramatically exploded in flight. The footage of the explosion and its aftermath looks like something out of science fiction: bright orange-yellow streaks of light streaking across the sky like many alien spacecraft might. Observers on land in Turks & Caicos and passengers aboard cruise ships in the Caribbean Sea captured the dramatic footage.
Here is the exact moment Ship 33 experienced a RUD. https://t.co/in2nZBWNV8 pic.twitter.com/iI7DtLiZlE
— Felix Space Time (@Space_Time3) January 16, 2025
But the exploding top of the rocket is not just a light show. The Federal Aviation Administration said it “briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the area where the spacecraft debris fell,” that the debris from the Starship created a “dangerous area for the fall of debris.” Flight radar trackers showed several planes facing east over Turks & Caicos at the time of the explosion.
CNBC reported that the FAA has not received any reports of injury or property damage, although flights were delayed and diverted due to the explosion. American Airlines told CNBC that fewer than 10 flights were diverted, while Delta had four flights diverted. According to flight tracking sites, at least one cargo jet reversed course and a Spirit Airlines flight changed its tack. The confusion is understandable—no one wants a plane to fly through rocket debris.
— andres (@_thatonedolphin) January 17, 2025
“Starship flew within its designated launch corridor – as all US launches do to protect the public on land, in the water and in the air,” the SpaceX release added. “Any remaining pieces of debris would have fallen into the designated hazard area.”
In X—the social media platform owned by Musk—the multi-billionaire said that “preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure over the vent capacity. .” Musk added that nothing about the way Flight 7 unfolded suggested the next Starship launch should be delayed in February.
On the ground, the seventh flight of the Starship was successful. The chopstick-like arms of the Mechazilla tower successfully grab and grab the Super Heavy rocket booster from the air. Skyward, the seventh flight failed. That’s what you call it when your rocket explodes and rains metal back down to Earth. But SpaceX will take it in stride. “Success comes from what we learn, and this flight test will help us improve the reliability of Starship as SpaceX seeks to make life multiplanetary,” the company’s release stated.
Relatedly, Australian carrier Qantas has had to delay several flights between Australia and South Africa in recent weeks due to warnings of potential space debris associated with SpaceX launches, as reported in The Guardian.
This latest incident could prompt a lengthy FAA inquiry. We’ve seen it before: Last year, SpaceX had to implement a dozens of corrective actions following an FAA investigation into its second Starship flight, in November 2023, among other investigations prompted by the failed tests.
The company is undoubtedly making progress when it comes to flying reusable rockets. The Starship is a solid launch vehicle—as proven by NASA investing in the Starship for its Artemis program to return humans to the Moon.
But SpaceX has it has passed its tentative goals are to bring people to Mars by 2022 and fly a billionaire and some artists around the Moon (2023). As reported by Inverse, 2025 is the earliest that Elon Musk says a colony on Mars could be established, with a settlement on the dry, cold, and dusty world by the end of the decade. The clock, Mr. Musk.
