SpaceX Starship explosion creates spectacular aerial display for the second time this year

[Daniel Sims]

In brief: For the second time in two months, a SpaceX shuttle has exploded in mid-air in a stunning display of fireballs visible from the ground. Both incidents disrupted air traffic despite the company's repeated pledges to uphold safety standards. Meanwhile, France's space agency completed a "flawless" mission on the same day.

A SpaceX Starship craft exploded shortly after launch Thursday evening, forming a bright debris shower over Florida and the Caribbean, interrupting air traffic. The incident echoes a similar failure the company suffered in January.

SpaceX noted that an unexpected occurrence in the shuttle's aft section caused it to lose altitude and break apart a few minutes after launch at around 6:30 pm EST. Footage of the fragments streaking through the evening sky quickly circulated on social media.

Just saw Starship 8 blow up in the Bahamas @SpaceX @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/rTMJu23oVx

– Jonathon Norcross (@NorcrossUSA) March 6, 2025

The company stressed that, due to coordination with the FAA, any debris likely fell within a designated response area. However, the agency halted air traffic in several locations throughout Florida following the explosion.

A nearly identical incident occurred in January when a Starship craft broke apart over the Caribbean, leading to emergency action from the FAA as vivid images spread across social media. SpaceX detected an aft fire several minutes after both launches.

The company reiterated its commitment to learning from the incidents despite evidence connecting them to the same flaw. The third time must be the charm, as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stated that the company has a third attempt planned to launch in four to six weeks.

However, SpaceX can claim partial success from the two test flights. Following both launches, its Super Heavy rocket booster – the bottom section of the craft that handles the initial launch – successfully returned to the launch pad.

Thursday's test marks the third consecutive time SpaceX has recovered a rocket booster following its initial success in October. This achievement indicates tangible progress toward the company's aim to recycle rocket boosters, which form the bulk of space shuttles. Reusing boosters reduces costs significantly.

A few hours before SpaceX's failure on Thursday, Arianespace launched its Ariane 6 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana without incident. In cooperation with the French Defense Procurement Agency and France's national space agency, the commercial mission launched the CSO-3 defense and observation satellite into orbit at an altitude of 800 km (497 mi).

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SpaceX Starship explosion creates spectacular aerial display for the second time this year

 

[wiyosaya]

Musk's idea of Fireworks, I guess.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Hopefully it's not doing too much damage to the Gulf of Mexico

 

[Kotters]

Beautiful.

 

[nnguy2]

Musk needs to write a bullet of five things he didnt F up last week.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

Ummm why are we comparing the Ariane 6 to the Starship? They're nothing alike. For one, the Ariane 6 can barely deliver half of the very successful Faclon 9's payload to orbit. Plus it has no reusability, yesterday was its first successful mission, it's far more expensive, and it's supposed to be complete in its development.

The Starship on the other hand is under development, has had 4/8 successful launches, and something like 10-15x the payload as the Ariane 6... Failures are expected with the Starship, and not expected on the Ariane 6 while they both have the same success rate so far.

 

[The Talking Tech]

And yet this is all Federal money that MUSK is literally burning up, money that he could have cut back through DOGE.

But I guess TRUMP'S idea of federal money savings doesn't apply to him.

The irony and the double standards are palpable with that administration.

 

[NotYourITguy]

Ummm why are we comparing the Ariane 6 to the Starship? They're nothing alike. For one, the Ariane 6 can barely deliver half of the very successful Faclon 9's payload to orbit. Plus it has no reusability, yesterday was its first successful mission, it's far more expensive, and it's supposed to be complete in its development.

The Starship on the other hand is under development, has had 4/8 successful launches, and something like 10-15x the payload as the Ariane 6... Failures are expected with the Starship, and not expected on the Ariane 6 while they both have the same success rate so far.

This exactly. Seems people just really want to hate on Elon right now and will grasp at anything they can to drive more hatred.

SpaceX is going to long outlive Elon. Realistically, he doesn't have that much to do with the success or failure of launches. I see at least 26 Falcon 9s have launched successfully this year already, many of those being re-used. It's not even remotely comparable to ESAs Ariane program which is at least 20 years behind SpaceX at this point.

 

[BogdanR]

This exactly. Seems people just really want to hate on Elon right now and will grasp at anything they can to drive more hatred.

SpaceX is going to long outlive Elon. Realistically, he doesn't have that much to do with the success or failure of launches. I see at least 26 Falcon 9s have launched successfully this year already, many of those being re-used. It's not even remotely comparable to ESAs Ariane program which is at least 20 years behind SpaceX at this point.

As a fellow engineer I have nothing but the utmost respect for the engineering teams at both Space X and Tesla.
I despise Musk though. With good reason.
Is that OK?

 

[p51d007]

It just amazes me, how up until the 2024 election season, Musk was the darling of the democrat
political elite, Hollywood types etc. They would pawn all over him, buy his Tesla vehicles, praise
him for his starlink, his space ships etc. ONCE he took over Twitter, put Trump back on it, and started
backing Trump, the left tossed him aside. Hypocrites!
As for his space ship, getting a huge heavy vehicle off the ground and into orbit is VERY hard. If it wasn't, everyone would be doing it. With time, they will figure it out. I guess people don't remember the 50's and early 60's space program. You can find many videos where ships blew up on the pad, or after launch.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

And yet this is all Federal money that MUSK is literally burning up, money that he could have cut back through DOGE.

But I guess TRUMP'S idea of federal money savings doesn't apply to him.

The irony and the double standards are palpable with that administration.

No buddy, this is their own money funded by Starlink, which was further funded by Falcon 9 launches that saved the government billions of dollars compared to the competitors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship#Cost_and_funding

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

As a fellow engineer I have nothing but the utmost respect for the engineering teams at both Space X and Tesla.
I despise Musk though. With good reason.
Is that OK?

That's perfectly fine haha, you don't have to like everyone

 

[MonicaPython2]

But the general idea is still impressive.

 

[sreams]

And yet this is all Federal money...

No, it is not "all" federal money. *Some* of the money comes from the Artemis contract. Most of it comes from funding from private investors and Starlink.

 

[toooooot]

It just amazes me, how up until the 2024 election season, Musk was the darling of the democrat
political elite, Hollywood types etc. They would pawn all over him, buy his Tesla vehicles, praise
him for his starlink, his space ships etc. ONCE he took over Twitter, put Trump back on it, and started
backing Trump, the left tossed him aside. Hypocrites!
As for his space ship, getting a huge heavy vehicle off the ground and into orbit is VERY hard. If it wasn't, everyone would be doing it. With time, they will figure it out. I guess people don't remember the 50's and early 60's space program. You can find many videos where ships blew up on the pad, or after launch.

I have one reason that is less obvious to many. Until recent, most of the big platforms had moderated users using the same set of values. Some of those were the new values that some people believed would become the new norm. But looking back, even then many people would never accept those values, especially the ones relating to family, sex, and identity.
It became upsetting to the left because they realized it is not just Musk, but many many more who were suppressed by left leaning platforms are now expressing drastically different opinions. "What do you mean you do not have the same beliefs as we do? Why are you only speaking like this now." Well because your platforms made it look like most of us agree on the main issues and beliefs. Because those who even long time ago spoke against the shift were suppressed due to all big platforms sharing the same rules and their owners sharing the same values.
They are upset there are many more people who never wanted to go the same road. They did not back the right presidential candidate, they now have a platform that does not obey "proper" moderation techniques.

The power that influential left leaning people seemed to be holding using social platforms was not as solid. The power Hollywood had on the people was very short.

 

[The Talking Tech]

No, it is not "all" federal money. *Some* of the money comes from the Artemis contract. Most of it comes from funding from private investors and Starlink.

A lot of that money came from the government...from the very same Democrats that now he seems to dislike.

Talking about ungrateful.....

 

[umeng2002]

I would like to add that these last two failures happened before the heat shield even came into play.

 

[sreams]

A lot of that money came from the government...from the very same Democrats that now he seems to dislike.

Talking about ungrateful.....

As I said... only a small percentage of the money used for the Starship program comes from the Artemis contract. So, no, "a lot of that money" does not come from goverment. The entire program was planned and funded before SpaceX ever won the moon lander contract, which was for $2.9B. That amount is nowhere near enough to do what they are doing.

 

[pnntmp]

And yet this is all Federal money that MUSK is literally burning up, money that he could have cut back through DOGE.

But I guess TRUMP'S idea of federal money savings doesn't apply to him.

The irony and the double standards are palpable with that administration.

LOL seriously ?
SpaceX launches nearly 90% of the payload to orbit worldwide, 95%+ in the US. For all practical purposes, it's the only provider of such services. They are perfectly capable of funding themselves and do not use federal money.
In the cases where they work on government contracts - these are colossal savings for the government. If the government were to contract someone else, that would cost us 10x more with a much higher risk of failure at the same time.

 

[CBTex]

The amount people that are butt hurt about Elon is nuts. I’m sure he has to wipe his tears with hundred dollar bills every night.

 

[BogdanR]

No, it is not "all" federal money. *Some* of the money comes from the Artemis contract. Most of it comes from funding from private investors and Starlink.

Federal money, from different administrations have propped up both Space X and Tesla when they had issues. Please note that I'm saying Fed money not Dems or GOP as several administrations of both colours have pumped billions into Musk's ventures.
I have absolutely no issues with the government pumping funds into ventures that push the country forward in science/ technology. That is in fact what kept the US in front, starting with the Space Race.
I have a problem with ungrateful, hypocrite hacks, with the moral vertical spine of an amoeba, like Musk and his ilk, scoring political points after suckling at the fed's t1t$ every single time they needed to survive.

 

[m3tavision]

LMAO, as always, bootlickers out in full force, like this one!
Fox news and social media really did a number on the yanks, now we're all paying for it.

And always trolls under the bridge...

Same Creatures that can not think for themselves and flailing about looking for real news. While most understand, bootlicking common sense ideas, is righteous.

Sunshine is keeps the trolls away.



So keep on complaining it is music to the tax-payer's ears, the swamp is being drained and it's glorious.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1898038626241417363

 

[m3tavision]

And yet this is all Federal money that MUSK is literally burning up, money that he could have cut back through DOGE.

But I guess TRUMP'S idea of federal money savings doesn't apply to him.

The irony and the double standards are palpable with that administration.

lol^
SpaceX is a private company and you are just airing your disdain for efficiency and merit. As explained, US Gov contract given to SpaceX was for government stuff. That contract has nothing to do with these experimental rockets that Elon's been working on for 7 years.

Your attempt to get other's to believe that US Citizen's money was lost in Elon's SpaceX experimental flight is more than obvious. But as noted, Your opinion about does not outweigh facts.



Free speech is about the ability to get to the truth.

For the American People, everything DOGE eliminates is good for US Citizen and the Country as a whole, not bad (that is why DOGE has a 69% approval rating). Most people attacking DOGE do not understand the difference between FEDERAL and STATE funding and how our Federal Taxes work. And why this exposers is so good and even President Clinton wanted to downsize & complete audit of the US Gov.

So many here do not understand the importance of the 3 Branches of US Government or the US Constitution. Over the coming years you all will learn more about the global corruption that has grip on the false-narrative many people are believe.

 

[DukeJukem]

Hopefully it's not doing too much damage to the Gulf of Mexico

Gulf of America

 

[DrSuess]

SpaceX sure knows how to engineer great fireworks shows.