Airlines have been forced to divert flights over the Gulf of Mexico to avoid debris from a malfunctioning test of SpaceX’s Starship rocket. The upper stage of the rocket broke up minutes after launching from Texas.
The Starship upper stage, two meters (6.56 feet) taller than previous versions, successfully detached from its Super Heavy booster around four minutes into flight as planned. But minutes later SpaceX Communications Manager Dan Huot said on a live stream that mission teams had "all communications with the ship. It was great to see a booster come down, but we are obviously bummed out about ship," Huot added, saying it would take time to determine what happened. The Starship was supposed to soar across the Gulf of Mexico from Texas on a looping trajectory around the planet. The spacecraft was packed with 10 mock satellites and was supposed to practice releasing them.
The upgraded Starship system stands roughly 37 stories tall and lifted off from the SpaceX facility in Boca Chica, Texas, at 5:38 p.m. local time (2238 GMT/UTC). It was the company’s seventh test mission and the first test of 2025.
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