SpaceX’s fiery Starship explosion put on a fantastic show but delayed and diverted flights


Falling debris from the SpaceX Starship explosion yesterday created what looked like a meteor shower, or a colorful fireworks show based on videos shared by people in the area, but it also delayed flights.
The footage of the explosion’s aftermath was shared to social media and Reddit. Some of it was recorded inside planes flying nearby, and many flights were diverted around the debris field, or delayed until all the fragments touched down.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it had “briefly slowed and diverted planes around the area where space debris was falling,” according to Reuters.
The 7th test flight of Starship was at least a partial success, marking the second time SpaceX successfully caught the Super Heavy booster with its launch tower. It was also the first time one of the booster’s Raptor engines was reused from a previous flight.
The launch was a testbed for a redesigned propulsion system, an improved flight computer, and the craft’s heat shield. It’s unclear if any of these were factors in the failure, but SpaceX says that, according to “initial data,” the explosion was potentially the result of a fire that developed in the ship’s rear section.
The company says that “Starship flew within its designated launch corridor” and “any surviving pieces of debris would have fallen into the designated hazard area.” The falling debris put on a show in the evening sky over the Caribbean and was captured by several tourists who seemed both amazed and slightly anxious about what they were witnessing.
The last time SpaceX lost the Starship was during its third test flight last March. Although it was the first flight where the Starship completed its full-duration ascent burn, SpaceX lost contact with the spacecraft shortly before it was expected to splash down in the Indian Ocean.
Falling debris from the SpaceX Starship explosion yesterday created what looked like a meteor shower, or a colorful fireworks show based on videos shared by people in the area, but it also delayed flights. The footage of the explosion’s aftermath was shared to social media and Reddit. Some of it…
Recent Posts
- Grok blocked results saying Musk and Trump “spread misinformation”
- A GPU or a CPU with 4TB HBM-class memory? Nope, you’re not dreaming, Sandisk is working on such a monstrous product
- The Space Force shares a photo of Earth taken by the X-37B space plane
- Elon Musk claims federal employees have 48 hours to explain recent work or resign
- xAI could sign a $5 billion deal with Dell for thousands of servers with Nvidia’s GB200 Blackwell AI GPU accelerators
Archives
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- September 2018
- October 2017
- December 2011
- August 2010