Burn, baby, burn: SpaceX debris forces airline diversions

“Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed”: Elon Musk undeterred as Starship breaks up mid-flight, with raining debris briefly affecting airlines’ flight paths

spacex starship


SpaceX’s uncrewed Starship has broken up mid-flight, forcing airlines to divert flights to avoid the falling debris – with the company stating that the test “served as a reminder that development testing by definition is unpredictable”.

A film widely circulated on social media shows a glowing constellation of whitish and bright orange objects hurtling across the sky in what was, at least, a spectacular end to Starship’s latest test. Sharing the footage himself on Twitter, founder and CEO Elon Musk took a tongue-in-cheek approach, writing that “success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed”.

Delays to commercial air traffic were briefly experienced as airlines were forced to re-route around the risk of falling debris, with some some fights departing from Miami and Fort Lauderdale categorised by the FAA delay note “Other: Rocket launch anomaly”. In a statement, the regulator confirmed that “the FAA briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the area where space vehicle debris was falling” and has since resumed normal operations.

Starship lifted off from Texas on 16 January for its seventh test flight, with SpaceX intending to “repeat [its] previous success of launching and catching the world’s most powerful launch vehicle while putting a redesigned and upgraded Starship through a rigorous test of flight demonstrations”. The Super Heavy booster separated from the Starship and was subsequently ‘caught’ by the landing tower, the second time this feat has been performed successfully.

However, during an ascent burn of the Starship’s upper stage, telemetry was lost with the vehicle approximately eight and half minutes into flight. Initial Space X data suggested that “a fire developed in the aft section of the ship, leading to a rapid unscheduled disassembly”, which occurred somewhere above the Turks and Caicos islands. Musk added that the “preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity”.

“Apart from obviously double-checking for leaks, we will add fire suppression to that volume and probably increase vent areas. Nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month,” Musk concluded. The ship and booster for Starship’s eight test flight are currently undergoing prelaunch testing.

In a statement, SpaceX added that “Starship flew within its designated launch corridor – as all US launches do to safeguard the public both on the ground, on water and in the air. Any surviving pieces of debris would have fallen into the designated hazard area”.

Earlier this week, Australian carrier Qantas has also reported flight delays on services between Sydney and Johannesburg; alleging that falling SpaceX debris from earlier launches is impacting its operations over “an extensive area of the Southern Indian Ocean”.

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