• By Nidhi Giri
  • Fri, 07 Mar 2025 08:06 AM (IST)
  • Source:JND

Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship spacecraft tumbled and exploded in space on Thursday minutes after its lift off from Texas on Thursday, with engines shutting down, company live stream showed, minutes after which several videos on social media showed fireball-like debris of the spacecraft streaking through the dusk skies near south Florida and the Bahamas. This is the second consecutive failure this year for Elon Musk's Mars rocket program.

Several videos on social media showed fiery debris streaking through the dusk skies near south Florida and the Bahamas after Starship's breakup in space.

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The failure comes just over a month after the company's seventh Starship flight also ended in an explosive failure. The back-to-back mishaps occurred in early mission phases that SpaceX has easily surpassed previously, indicating serious setbacks for a program Musk has sought to speed up this year.

Starship Launch

The 403-foot (123-meter) rocket system had lifted off at about 6:30 p.m. ET (2330 GMT) from SpaceX's sprawling Boca Chica, Texas, rocket facilities, with its Super Heavy first stage booster returning back to land as planned.

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But minutes later, SpaceX's live stream showed the Starship upper stage spinning in space, while a visualization of the rocket's engines showed multiple engines shut down before the company confirmed it had lost contact with the ship.

"Unfortunately this happened last time too, so we've got some practice now," SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot said on the live stream.
It was not immediately clear whether the explosion was caused by SpaceX's automated flight termination system, which triggers when something on the rocket goes wrong. The ship showed signs of failure before its explosion.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued ground stops at Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Orlando airports because of "space launch debris" until at least 8 p.m. ET, according to a Reuters report.

"During Starship's ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost," SpaceX said in a statement. "Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses."

(With Agency Inputs)