by Reuters reported that dozens of commercial airliners were forced to change course to avoid falling debris after a SpaceX rocket exploded over the Gulf of Mexico.
The giant Starship rocket broke into space Thursday just minutes after launching from Texas, sending flaming debris across the sky, according to video footage.
Elon Musk’s private rocket company confirmed that SpaceX mission control lost contact eight minutes after launch with the unmanned rocket, which had been newly upgraded and was carrying a test satellite payload.
“That essentially means we had an anomaly in the senior class,” communications manager Dan Huot told Reuters.
The upper stage includes both the rocket that carries the spacecraft into orbit and the spacecraft itself.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it briefly slowed and diverted planes in the area where the debris fell, but normal operations resumed Thursday. Departures from Miami and Fort Lauderdale were delayed by about 45 minutes.
According to NBC News, the rocket booster that enabled the launch from the launch pad survived this time. For only the second time, SpaceX managed to repeat an incredible maneuver in which the launch vehicle separates from the spacecraft and turns its course back to Earth, where it is then caught by giant mechanical “arms” protruding from the launch tower.
This was the spectacle that President-elect Donald Trump had hoped to witness when he attended a SpaceX launch in November. During this launch, the carrier rocket crashed into the sea and was destroyed.
On Thursday, Musk downplayed the explosion on the upper stage, posting a video of the burning debris and writing on his social media platform X: “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!”
“What does it look like from the cabin of a packed 747?” one user wrote in response.
Social media users had previously posted footage of the fiery re-entry and asked whether they were witnessing a UFO or a meteor. Others assumed it had something to do with SpaceX, but weren’t sure what. A user posted a video of a fireball with the caption, “What is that @elonmusk?”
