Niamh Shackleton
A passenger on a commercial plane caught the moment SpaceX's latest rocket launch exploded mid-flight.
Yesterday (March 6), SpaceX launched another mammoth Starship rocket, but lost contact minutes into the test flight as the spacecraft came tumbling down and broke apart.
There's been eight Starship rocket tests so far and there's only been a 50 percent success rate, with yesterday marking SpaceX's latest failure.
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Starship reached nearly 90 miles in altitude before trouble struck and before four mock satellites could be deployed.
Wreckage from the latest explosion was seen streaming from the skies over Florida, where is caused air traffic issues.
Controllers had to rush to reroute any planes that were heading towards the explosion site.
It's unclear how many flights had to be rerouted, but one commercial jet was close enough for passengers to see the aftermath.
One passenger posted a clip of the explosion to Twitter, writing: "Just saw Starship 8 blow up from our flight."
The video shows the meteorite-like shards of the rocket fly across the sky with a scenic sunset backdrop. Take a look:
Just saw Starship 8 blow up from our flight @elonmusk @SpaceX pic.twitter.com/RyDzUtXzpo
— DegenZee (@Degen_Zee) March 7, 2025
While it's unknown just how far away the plane was from the explosion, people were quick to point out how crazy it was that such scenes were viewable for some passengers.
One person said: "Crazy thing to witness in person and so up close. You might literally be the closest person in the world to that falling debris."
A second wrote: "The fact that debris got this close to a plane in the air is IN-F**KING-SANE!"
"Wow I'd be pretty shaken up if I'd witnessed this," added a third. "I wonder was there any sound?"
Meanwhile, others questioned what caused the explosion and a report has since been issued that looked into what went wrong.
It details: "Prior to the end of the ascent burn, an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship resulted in the loss of several Raptor engines. This in turn led to a loss of attitude control and ultimately a loss of communications with Starship."
This also led to the vehicle experiencing 'a rapid unscheduled disassembly' and also loss of contact with ground control, the report adding: "Final contact with Starship came approximately nine minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff."
NASA has booked Starship to land its astronauts on the moon later this decade.
Elsewhere, SpaceX’s Elon Musk is aiming for Mars with Starship, the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket.