Elon Musk’s latest Starship test flight ended in another explosion, scattering debris over Florida. No casualties have been reported.
On Thursday, SpaceX lost contact with the rocket during its flight. The spacecraft exploded mid-air, with wreckage falling to the ground in Florida. This incident comes nearly two months after another Starship test ended in a fiery explosion, sending debris over the Turks and Caicos. It remains unclear whether the spacecraft’s self-destruct system was activated.
In a statement, SpaceX said: “During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost.”
The 123-meter rocket launched from Texas on Thursday evening. While SpaceX successfully recovered the first-stage booster using giant mechanical arms, the spacecraft’s engines began shutting down as it continued its eastward trajectory. The mission aimed for a controlled descent over the Indian Ocean, but contact was lost when the spacecraft entered an uncontrollable spin.
A social media user in the Bahamas captured footage of what appeared to be the wreckage gliding across the sky. Starship reached an altitude of nearly 140 km before the failure occurred, preventing the planned deployment of four mock satellites.
The exact location of the debris impact remains uncertain, but images of flaming wreckage near Cape Canaveral, Florida, have surfaced online.
The test flight was expected to last an hour. NASA has selected Starship for future lunar missions, while SpaceX continues to develop the rocket as part of Elon Musk’s long-term vision for Mars exploration.
