The US has grounded SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket as it investigates why it exploded during its latest test flight.
The rocket’s upper stage dramatically broke and disintegrated over the Caribbean after launch from Texas on Thursday, forcing airline flights to change course to avoid falling debris.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was working with SpaceX and other authorities to confirm reports of damage to public property in the Turks and Caicos Islands. There are no reports of injuries.
The aviation regulator has told Elon Musk’s company to conduct an “accident” investigation, which will review the findings before deciding whether Starship can return to flight.
The FAA confirmed it had activated a “debris response area” to briefly slow the aircraft outside the area where debris fellor prevent aircraft from leaving their departure points.
It added that several aircraft requested to be diverted due to low fuel levels while being held outside the affected area.
Starship is the largest, most powerful rocket ever built and is central to Musk’s ambitions to colonize Mars.
Thursday’s uncrewed launch was Starship’s seventh test mission and the first to involve a taller, upgraded version of the rocket.
The Starship’s upper stage, two meters (6.56 feet) taller than previous versions, was a “new-generation ship with significant upgrades,” SpaceX said before the test.
It was scheduled to make a controlled descent into the Indian Ocean about an hour after launch from Boca Chica, Texas.
The Starship system lifted off at 17:38 EST (22:38 GMT) and the upper stage separated from its Super Heavy booster nearly four minutes into the flight as planned.
But then SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot reported in a live broadcast that the mission teams had lost contact with the craft.
The Super Heavy booster managed to return to its launch pad about seven minutes after liftoff as planned, prompting an eruption of applause from ground control teams.
SpaceX later confirmed that the upper stage had undergone a “rapid unplanned disassembly.”
In a post on his social media platform X, Musk said “preliminary indications” are that the problem is related to an “oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship’s engine firewall.”
The billionaire added that “there is currently nothing to indicate that the next launch will be moved beyond next month.”
SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket – collectively called Starship – is 123m (403ft) tall and is intended to be fully reusable, the company says.
Nasa hopes to use a modified version of the rocket as a human lunar lander for its Artemis missions to return to the moon.
In the further future, Musk wants the Starship to make long trips to Mars and back — about nine months of travel each way.
Starship’s test launch on Thursday came hours after the maiden flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket system, backed by Amazon chief Jeff Bezos.
It was a big step forward for Bezos and his company, which had spent years getting to the point of sending a rocket into orbit.
Both Bezos and Musk want to dominate the space vehicle market.
