Flights Halted After SpaceX’s Starship Rocket Explodes
**Flights Halted After SpaceX’s Starship Rocket Explodes**
By Nick Wingfield
4 hours ago
Source: The Information
Airports in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and elsewhere in Florida grounded plane flights due to a risk of debris after the explosion of a portion of SpaceX's Starship rocket, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The upper stage of Starship experienced a "rapid unscheduled disassembly"—an explosion—during the ascent burn of the rocket, which SpaceX had launched from its base in south Texas, SpaceX said in a post on X. People in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos posted spectacular video images of fiery debris streaking across the sky on social media.
It was the eighth flight test of Starship, a rocket that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk hopes to one day use to send humans to Mars. SpaceX successfully landed the rocket's reusable booster, catching it in midair with mechanical claws on the launch pad in Texas.