Elon Musk’s much-touted Starship programme met a setback on Thursday when Starship 8 blew up over the Bahamas. SpaceX’s Starship rocket went out of control minutes after launch on Thursday, February 6, scattering debris across a large area near South Florida and the Bahamas.
Multiple flights in the Caribbean region had to be diverted after the mishap, as per Flight Radar 24.
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/OL7moLdZ2u
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 6, 2025
The 403-foot-tall (123 m) rocket took off from Texas just before sunset. In the first phase, SpaceX successfully took off, but the spacecraft could not continue its predetermined path and lost control.
Full Video of Starship 8. pic.twitter.com/VwOmv9w3uc
— Alex Oha (@oha_alex) March 6, 2025
Starship 8 Crash Video Viral
SpaceX’s live stream showed the starship spinning erratically, after which the company reported a loss of contact. Shortly after this, several videos appeared on social media, in which pieces of the spacecraft could be seen hurtling into the atmosphere like fireballs in the sky.
Just saw Starship 8 blow up in the Bahamas @SpaceX @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/rTMJu23oVx
— Jonathon Norcross (@NorcrossUSA) March 6, 2025
The incident temporarily halted flights at Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Orlando airports due to space launch debris.
Diversions aplenty across the Caribbean following the loss of another Starship. pic.twitter.com/4iR92MwxjN
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 7, 2025
SpaceX Issues Statement
Issuing a statement on the crash, SpaceX said that Starship 8 was unable to move quickly on its predetermined course during launch, which is why contact with it was lost. After this, the team tried to implement the emergency protocol and immediately spoke to the security officials.
“During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses. We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause. As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability [sic],” the Elon Musk-led company said in an X post.
During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses.
We will review the data from today’s flight test to better…
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 7, 2025
Starship 8 Launched Nearly 2 Months After Another Crash
The Starship 8 disaster came almost two months after another launch had ended in an explosion in January. That mishap caused burning debris to fall on the Turks and Caicos.
NASA was keeping a close eye on this mission because the space agency has already booked Starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade. The disaster that has come days before SpaceX’s Dragon launch to the International Space Station (ISS) to bring back stranded astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore could spark concerns at NASA.
