US aviation authorities temporarily suspended flights at several Florida airports, leaving concerns about debris from SpaceX spacecraft out of control soon after launch.
After a failed Atlantic launch, ground stops were placed at airports in Orlando and Miami. It was then lifted. No injuries or injuries have been reported.
SpaceX confirmed that the unstoppable ship was suffering from “rapidly unplanned demolition” during its ascent into space, losing contact with the ground.
A statement from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said flights entering and leaving the airport were delayed due to a “space launch incident.” This was the eighth mission to test the rocket, and it was a second consecutive failure.
The 123m (403ft) spacecraft was intended to re-enter Earth’s orbit into the Indian Ocean after an hour of flight.
The super heavy booster that helped me get away from the ground allowed me to go back to the launchpad.
SpaceX, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, said the team immediately began coordinating with safety officials for “pre-planned emergency response.”
The statement added that SpaceX will review the data “to better understand the root cause” of the accident.
“As always, success comes from what we’ve learned, and today’s flights offer additional lessons to improve the reliability of Starship.”
Musk has not commented on Thursday’s explosion yet.
The incident followed a January test, and a spacecraft rocket failed just minutes after it was released from SpaceX’s Texas facility.
The FAA temporarily closed the airport at the time due to concerns about the fall.
After the January incident, the FAA grounded spacecraft was launched and found that failed efforts had led to property damage to the Turkish and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean.
“Unfortunately, this happened last time, so now we have some practice with this,” SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot told reporters on Thursday at the launch site.
The footage posted to X is claimed to show fragments of a fire rocket falling in the Caribbean sea. In the Bahamas, people posted that they were looking for shelter because they were hiding from debris.
The spacecraft is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, and is the key to Mask’s ambitions to colonize Mars.
SpaceX’s Starship Spacecraft and Super Heavy Rocket – collectively called Starship – are intended to be completely reusable, the company says.
NASA hopes to use a modified version of the spacecraft as a human lunar lander for Artemis Missions to return to the moon.
In the more distant future, Musk hopes that the spacecraft will travel long distances to Mars and back – about nine months of travel each.
