Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship explodes in space, raining debris over Caribbean

SpaceX's Starship spacecraft disintegrated and exploded in space minutes after lifting off from Texas. This incident marks the second consecutive failure this year for Elon Musk's Mars rocket program, which had planned to deploy simulated satellites during this flight.

Videos on social media showed fiery debris streaking across the twilight sky near South Florida and the Bahamas after Starship disintegrated. The accident occurred after Starship's engines had shut down and it began to spin uncontrollably.

This failure comes just over a month after the company's seventh Starship flight also ended in an explosion. The successive accidents have occurred during the early stages of the mission, phases that SpaceX had previously surpassed with ease, suggesting a significant setback for the program Musk has been trying to accelerate this year.

The 123-meter-tall rocket system launched from SpaceX's rocket facility in Boca Chica, Texas, around 6:30 p.m., with its Super Heavy first-stage booster returning for a planned landing. However, minutes later, SpaceX's live feed showed the Starship upper stage spinning in space, and visualizations of the rocket engines showed multiple engines shutting down, after which the company confirmed it had lost contact with the spacecraft. "Unfortunately, we also had something like this happen last time, so we've got some experience with that now," said SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot during the livestream.

It is currently unclear whether the explosion was triggered by SpaceX's automatic flight termination system, which activates when a rocket malfunctions. The spacecraft had already shown signs of malfunction before the explosion. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued ground stops for airports in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, and Orlando due to "space launch debris," with the stops lasting until at least 8 p.m. local time.

SpaceX said in a statement: "During Starship's ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and lost contact. Our teams are immediately coordinating with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses." The Starship failure in January occurred eight minutes into the flight, with the rocket exploding in space and debris scattering over Caribbean islands, causing minor damage to a car in Turks and Caicos.

The flight, originally scheduled for this week, was set for March 4, but the company canceled the mission due to an unspecified issue with the rocket system's core spacecraft, postponing the launch by at least 24 hours.