Elon Musk's Starship prototype disintegrates in space, disrupts air traffic

This was the seventh launch attempt for the Starship prototype and it broke apart causing debris to fall.

SpaceX's Starship rocket prototype on Thursday broke apart during launch, leading to debris raining down across the Caribbean and grounding all nearby aircraft.

Debris falls after Elon Musk's Starship prototype breaks in space (AFP)

The Starship launch took place in Boca Chica, Texas on Thursday night to conduct stress tests on the ultra-heavy rocket. However, the upper section of the rocket exploded mere minutes after lift-off and SpaceX lost communication with the vehicle.

Air traffic disruptions

The rocket's failure, however, caused major disruptions to air traffic, with Miami International Airport grounding some flights and at least 20 commercial flights being diverted or rerouted to avoid the raining debris, as per tracking data from FlightRadar24.

Residents of the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos filmed videos showing planes that were forced to be grounded to avoid the falling debris.

The US federal aviation administration stated that normal operations have since resumed.

In a statement, SpaceX stated that its team would continue to analyse data from the flight to identify the root cause of the failure.

This was the seventh launch attempt for the Starship prototype and included several updates meant to push the rocket’s limits and test its resilience under pressure.

Despite the failure, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted a video of the falling debris and said, “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!”

He also defended the rocket launch stating, “Starship is the first rocket design where success in making life multiplanetary is in the set of possible outcomes.”

While the launch failed this time, the rocket did manage to successfully catch its booster back onto its pad.