SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft has broken up mid-flight, forcing airlines to divert flights to avoid falling debris.
While Elon Musk’s company successfully recreated its prior feat of catching a first-stage booster as it returned to Earth on Thursday, its new-generation uncrewed spacecraft was lost.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) “briefly” slowed and diverted aircraft around the area where space vehicle debris was falling, the aviation regulator said.
“Normal operations have resumed,” a spokesperson said.
At least 20 flights changed their routes to avoid potential debris, according to data from flight tracking website FlightRadar24, as footage on social media appeared to show parts of the vehicle reentering the atmosphere over the Caribbean.
Musk said that the breakup of the spacecraft appeared to have been caused by an oxygen or fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall.
“Apart from obviously double-checking for leaks, we will add fire suppression to that volume and probably increase vent area,” Musk said in a post on his social media platform X. “Nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month.”
Musk earlier acknowledged the mission failure, posting footage of falling debris.
“Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!” he said.
SpaceX ground control lost contact with the prototype vehicle about eight and a half minutes after it took off from its launch site near Brownsville, Texas, in the United States.
The vehicle, which was in its inaugural flight, carried 10 dummy satellites and was supposed to complete a partial loop around the planet.
“Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn,” the company said in a post on X.
“Teams will continue to review data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability.”
The mission was the seventh test flight of SpaceX’s Starship, which Musk envisages will one day ferry people and cargo to Mars.
Earlier on Thursday, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin successfully launched its New Glenn rocket into orbit for the first time, marking a milestone in the race to commercial space travel.
In a series of X posts after the Blue Origin launch, Musk compared his relationship with his space industry rival to the dynamic between Will Ferrell and John C Reilly’s characters in the 2008 comedy, Step Brothers.
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