SpaceX Starship explodes over Caribbean Sea minutes after launch

7 hrs ago

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Lauren Taylor Anchor

By Lauren Taylor (Anchor), Roey Hadar (Producer), Harry Fogle (Video Editor)

SpaceX says its Starship, the world’s largest rocket, exploded Thursday, Jan. 16, shortly after taking off from Texas for its seventh launch. The company called the rocket’s break-up a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

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The company’s owner, Elon Musk, said their early indications suggest the unmanned rocket had a fuel leak. It caused Starship to fail and break up above the Caribbean Sea.

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Musk acknowledged videos of the rocket’s explosion, reposting one on his social media site X.

Starship was a pioneering rocket, with SpaceX succeeding in catching its booster after launch twice—first in October and again following Thursday’s launch.

NASA plans to use Starship as part of its Artemis mission, which will land humans on the Moon for the first time in over half a century. The agency paid SpaceX nearly $4 billion over two different contracts to use its technology during a future Moon landing.

The Federal Aviation Administration briefly rerouted and delayed flights in South Florida, not far from where the rocket disintegrated, to avoid potential collisions with Starship’s debris.

Tags: Aerospace, Elon Musk, NASA, Space Debris, Space Technology, SpaceX

LAUREN TAYLOR: SpaceX says its Starship, the world’s largest rocket, exploded Thursday not long after taking off from Texas for its seventh launch. The company referred to the rocket’s break-up as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

The company’s owner Elon Musk said their early indications suggest the unmanned rocket had a fuel leak, causing Starship to fail and then break up above the Caribbean Sea.

Musk acknowledged videos of the rocket’s explosion, reposting one on his social media site X.

Starship was a pioneering rocket, with SpaceX succeeding in catching its booster after launch twice, first in October and then after Thursday’s launch.

NASA planned to use Starship as part of its Artemis mission to land humans on the Moon for the first time in more than half a century. The agency paid SpaceX nearly $4 billion over two different contracts to use the company’s technology in a future Moon landing.

The Federal Aviation Administration briefly rerouted and delayed flights in South Florida, not far from where the rocket disintegrated, to avoid debris from Starship’s loss.

For Straight Arrow News, I’m Lauren Taylor.

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