SpaceX Starship test flight explodes after takeoff

Another SpaceX Starship test flight ended in an explosion that rained debris over Florida and forced a temporary ground stop at airports in the Sunshine State.

The giant rocket took off on Thursday from Texas. Mechanical arms were able to return the first-stage booster back to the launch pad, but moments after launch the engines on the spacecraft shut down, and the base lost contact less than 10 minutes into the flight as it went into an uncontrolled spin, The Associated Press reported.

The flight was uncrewed, CNN reported.

“Once you lose enough of those center engines, you’re going to lose attitude control,” SpaceX communications manager, Dan Huot said, according to CNN. “And so we did see the ship start to go into a spin, and at this point, we have lost contact with the ship.”

SpaceX called it “a rapid unscheduled disassembly” during ascent engine firing.

“Prior to the end of the ascent burn, an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship resulted in the loss of several Raptor engines,” SpaceX said in a statement. “This in turn led to a loss of attitude control and ultimately a loss of communications with Starship. Final contact with Starship came approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff.”

Starship almost made it to 90 miles before the problems started and prevented the four mock satellites from being deployed.

The falling debris caused ground stops at Orlando, Miami, Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood airports, CNN reported.

“Any surviving debris would have fallen within the pre-planned Debris Response Area,” SpaceX said. “There are no toxic materials present in the debris and no significant impacts expected to occur to marine species or water quality. If you believe you have identified a piece of debris, please contact your local authorities or the SpaceX Debris Hotline at 1-866-623-0234 or at recovery@spacex.com.”

The Federal Aviation Administration said it will require SpaceX to investigate.

“A mishap investigation is designed to enhance public safety, determine the root cause of the event, and identify corrective actions to avoid it from happening again,” the agency said in a statement, according to CNN. “The FAA will be involved in every step of the SpaceX-led mishap investigation process and must approve SpaceX’s final report, including any corrective actions. A return to flight is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety.”

Huot said after the explosion, “Unfortunately this happened last time too, so we have some practice to do.”

The first explosion two months ago appeared to have been caused by leaking fuel which caused fires that kicked in the on-board self-destruct system.

It is not known if the self-destruct system triggered the explosion this time.

CNN said the issues happened at about the same point in the launch as the last failed launch in January.

The FAA said that the company made improvements and the agency recently cleared Starship for launch, the AP reported.

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