‘Entertainment is guaranteed’: Elon Musk's SpaceX Spacecraft Explodes During Flight, Disrupting Air Traffic
SpaceX's Starship space rocket disintegrated in space a few minutes after launching from Texas on Thursday. The incident caused flights to be rerouted over the Gulf of Mexico to avoid falling debris, Reuters reports.
The accident was a major setback for Elon Musk's flagship rocket programme.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk commented on the rocket explosion with humour. On his social network X, he posted a video of the ship's wreckage falling, commenting with the following words: ‘Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed.’
SpaceX lost contact with the modified Starship rocket during its first test mission. The rocket, which was carrying a test payload - dummy satellites - and had no crew, lost contact eight minutes after liftoff from a rocket complex in southern Texas at 17:38 EST (22:38 GMT).
‘We've lost all contact with the spacecraft, which indicates that there was a failure in the upper stage,’ said SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot. A few minutes later, he confirmed that the ship was lost.
A similar failure of the Starship's upper stage already occurred in March last year, when the ship was re-entering the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. However, such SpaceX failures have rarely caused significant disruption to air travel.
Due to the incident, dozens of commercial flights were diverted or changed course to avoid possible debris, according to FlightRadar24, a flight tracking website.
In addition, flights departing from Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports in Florida were delayed by about 45 minutes.
The US Federal Aviation Administration, which is responsible for regulating private space launches, reported a temporary slowdown and rerouting of flights in the area where debris could fall. Later, normal air travel was restored.
