SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft explodes midflight for a second time, disrupting Florida air traffic
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A SpaceX Starship spacecraft, the upper portion of the most powerful launch system ever built, exploded during its eighth test flight Thursday, disrupting air traffic and marking the second consecutive failure for the vehicle this year.
The uncrewed Starship mission lifted off at 5:30 p.m. CT (6:30 p.m. ET) from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas, with the spacecraft riding atop a 232-foot-tall (71-meter-tall) Super Heavy rocket booster.
After about 2 ? minutes of firing, the Super Heavy booster separated as planned from the Starship’s upper stage, setting itself up for a successful landing within the “chopstick” arms of “Mechazilla,” or SpaceX’s launch tower near Brownsville, Texas. It’s the third time SpaceX has successfully executed the chopsticks booster catch.
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But less than 10 minutes into the flight, the Starship craft, which had continued on toward space, began to experience issues. Several of the vehicle’s engines visibly cut out during the livestream, and the ship began to tumble before SpaceX lost contact with it.
“Once you lose enough of those center engines, you’re going to lose attitude control,” said Dan Huot, SpaceX communications manager, on the livestream. “And so we did see the ship start to go into a spin, and at this point, we have lost contact with the ship.”
The loss of signal occurred at roughly the same point during this mission as with Flight 7 in January, when Starship exploded over populated islands in Turks and Caicos, littering the islands with debris.
It has not been confirmed where exactly the vehicle exploded during Thursday’s mission. But the explosion was visible from parts of Florida and over the Caribbean, according to reports from residents of those locations that were shared with CNN.
The Federal Aviation Administration halted flights into Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, and Orlando airports Thursday evening for “falling space debris” until 8 p.m. ET.
The FAA also temporarily kept flights from departing from Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport. Flights leaving those airports were still delayed on average by 30 and 45 minutes, respectively, as of Thursday night.
