The FAA halted air traffic in sections of Florida on Thursday after SpaceX’s giant Starship spacecraft exploded in space minutes after taking off from Texas. This is the second consecutive failure of Elon Musk’s Mars rocket program this year.
Several videos on social media showed blazing wreckage streaking across the dusk sky near south Florida and the Bahamas after Starship split apart in orbit immediately after it began to spin wildly with its engines shut off, a SpaceX live stream of the flight indicated.
Only a little more than a month has passed since the seventh Starship test likewise ended in an explosive catastrophe. Musk had aimed to accelerate the program this year, but the back-to-back accidents happened in early mission phases that SpaceX has easily surpassed in the past.
Musk called Thursday’s explosion “a minor setback” on Friday, clarifying that the 403-foot (123-meter) rocket system is a key component of his plan to send humans to Mars by the end of the decade. “Progress is measured by time. The next ship will be ready in 4 to 6 weeks,” Musk wrote on X in response to another Facebook user.
