The orange debris streaking across the sky was not shooting stars or pieces of a comet- it was the remains of a SpaceX Starship explosion just last Thursday, January 16th.
The Starship and Super Heavy system is a 100-passenger spaceship and rocket booster tasked with landing astronauts on the moon and flying paying customers around it, and a step further into Elon Musk’s goal of colonizing Mars. Its seventh launch sent the 403.5-foot-tall vehicle from its Starbase site in Boca Chica, Texas, at 5:37 p.m. EST, up into the sky while the base caught the first stage booster “Super Heavy.” However, around 8.5 minutes into the flight, SpaceX lost contact with the unmanned ship.
The explosion occurred shortly after launch at an altitude of 91 miles, resulting in a bright display of shooting metal falling over the Caribbean. The FAA briefly created a “Debris Response Area” that forced planes to reroute. The Turks and Caicos National Security Secretariat followed suit with an advisory last Friday saying, “Turks and Caicos Islands Airport Authority diverted all flights in (Turks and Caicos Islands) airspace as well as grounded all flights until an all clear had been given.” The FAA said in its statement Friday that the agency is working alongside SpaceX and local authorities to investigate reports of debris striking Turks and Caicos.
As a result of the incident, the FAA requires SpaceX to conduct a thorough mishap investigation into the Starship’s loss during launch, meaning the Starship will remain grounded in the U.S. until the investigation concludes. As per standard procedure, SpaceX must identify any corrective actions, which the FAA will review before approving future flights.
Starship had been progressing through various tests, and this particular flight was meant to gather more data for improving the vehicle’s performance. According to CNN, the explosion was likely due to SpaceX’s “substantial ‘upgrades’ to the vehicle that included larger fuel tanks that stretched its size by 2 meters (6.6 feet), a new flight computer and changes to the vehicle’s avionics.” There appeared to have been an oxygen/fuel leak in the space above the ship’s engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure. The company has faced similar investigations in the past that have also left Starship grounded for weeks. Elon Musk posted on social media that based on a “preliminary” look, and that “nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month.”
