Dozens of commercial airplanes were forced to change course to avoid falling debris after a SpaceX rocket exploded over the Gulf of Mexico, Reuters reported.
The massive Starship rocket broke up in space just minutes after launching from Texas on Thursday, sending flaming debris streaking across the sky, according to video footage.
Elon Musk’s private rocket company confirmed SpaceX mission control had lost contact with the unmanned rocket, which had been newly upgraded and was carrying a test satellite payload, eight minutes after liftoff.
“That is essentially telling us we had an anomaly with the upper stage,” communications manager Dan Huot told Reuters.
The upper stage includes both the rocket that propels the spacecraft toward orbit and the craft itself.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it had briefly slowed and diverted planes around the area where the debris was falling, but that normal operations had resumed Thursday. Departures from Miami and Fort Lauderdale were delayed by about 45 minutes.
The rocket booster that provided lift-off from the launch pad did survive this time, according to NBC News. SpaceX managed to repeat, for only the second time, an incredible maneuver in which the booster separates from the craft and reverses course back toward Earth, where it’s then caught by giant mechanical “arms” sticking out from the launch tower.
This was the spectacle that President-elect Donald Trump had been hoping to witness when he attended a SpaceX launch in November. During that launch the booster crashed into the ocean and was destroyed.
On Thursday, Musk downplayed the upper-stage explosion, posting video of the flaming debris and writing on his social media platform X, “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!”
“How does it look from the cabin of a packed 747?” one user wrote in response.
Social media users had previously posted footage of the flaming re-entry asking if they were witnessing a UFO or a meteor. Others assumed it was something to do with SpaceX, they just weren’t sure what. One user posted video of a ball of fire with the caption, “What is it @elonmusk?”
