Posted on 03/07/2025 4:50:47 AM PST by MtnClimber
Debris from a failed SpaceX rocket streaked across the South Florida sky Thursday evening, creating a display that left residents wondering whether they were witnessing a meteor shower or an explosion.
The spectacle came after SpaceX's Starship rocket, which launched from Texas, suffered a failure during ascent, sending fragments into the atmosphere.
Videos flooded social media, showing bright orbs in the sky before an apparent explosion scattered debris, resembling a cluster of shooting stars.
SpaceX confirms failure
In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, SpaceX acknowledged the malfunction, saying, "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."
The company did not provide further details on what caused the failure or whether any debris reached the ground.
Flights temporarily grounded
In South Florida, the fallout from the failed launch extended beyond the sky.
Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport briefly grounded flights due to the incident, though normal operations resumed later in the evening.
Residents from across South Florida reported witnessing the event, with many mistaking it for a plane crash or a celestial phenomenon.
Pffft! That's just an old canard.
I have not seen and cannot locate this video. Do you have a link to it? Thank you.
I saw it going past Naples, FL while it was still in one piece.
It looked like a cloud with a bright light in the middle moving very fast as it was coming towards me.
Then after it passed, it was just the bright light with no aura or cloud.
I wonder if that was when it started shutting down.
The strangest part was that I pulled out my iPhone with the Sky Guide app and it said a Russian satellite Cosmos 2406 was passing at a similar trajectory at the exact same time.
Starliner is about to be canceled, along with SLS. The big boys failed, while SpaceX has made Falcon 9 the safest and most reliable rocket ever, and they continue to achieve virtual miracles with Starship’s development. This version of Starship is having some kind of teething problem with its vacuum engines, but it’s a new version that hadn’t been flown before the previous flight. They’ll figure it out. They were making steady progress with Starship v. 1, and it displayed incredible resilience even when it experienced reentry burn through. And the super heavy booster is a nearly miraculous thing. It could be put into commercial service right now.
I don’t think it’s that. When yesterday’s issue occurred, Starship was too high for aerodynamic forces to be a factor. It appears that there have been fires in the engine bay on the last two flights. Yesterday, one of the vacuum engines failed right before engine cutoff and the asymmetric thrust put the ship into an uncontrolled spin. Video shows an apparent burn-through of the nozzle of one of those engines right before this occurred.
The last two flights have been conducted with a new revision of Starship that hadn’t flown before. It’s not surprising that some new issues would crop up, but it is surprising that it’s engine problems that seem to be the culprit, since I think the engines are the same as on Starship version 1.
Regardless, I have no doubt they’ll figure it out. Falcon 9 experienced numerous failures during its development, and now it’s the safest and most reliable rocket ever built.
Oh, and P.S.: Don’t be misled by the media nonsense about Starship “exploding.” While technically that did eventually happen, it was a planned explosion created by the flight termination explosives that are onboard every test flight being triggered to ensure that an out of control rocket doesn’t come down in the wrong area. The explosion wasn’t the failure, it was an intentional safety mechanism.
“...Biden is a petty, mean and vile person. Him and his entire klan..”
He always has been. He’s one mean, vindictive SOB.
He’s so mean that he went as far as to initiate and personally push thru the taxing of SS benefits on seniors back in the ‘80s. That little deed put a big hurt on elderly people while he personally enjoyed his likely ill-gotten gains.
Both were the new V2 version of the Starship.
Seems most likely an engine blew up and knocked out all the center gimbaling engines. Two outside vacuum engines kept running which caused the ship to spiral out of control.
Yes— OK CBS now “do” Boeing spaceflight. The most recent blatant failure stranding two starflight pilots at the Space — for longer than ANY to date stays in space. Which is by the way, killing them.
SpaceX is sending a successful launch vessel to rescue them. NOT f’ng Boeing whos returned unoccupied vehicle came back falling apart and would have killed the pilots on re-entry. Not to mention the several FAILED satellite launches of Boeing for USmil. SpaceX has taken those over. Talk about that CBS.Boeing is FAILING from their corrupt structure and breakdown in quality control. Not helped by Airbus comp. either.
No, and they don’t mention it and never will.
And when the vote was a draw, illustrious Al Gore at the time vice president stepped in and voted to tax social security. He was another obnoxious creep, even his wife didn’t like him and divorced him.
Why is SpaceX such a big deal? Is it because NASA has gone the way of GM, viz. staffed by fools and makes junk? Thank that pig pimp o’bama for that. That piece of trash forced DEI into NASA and now it’s a joke.
Good post.
Germans lost a lot of A-4 (V-2) rockets before they figured out how to make them work properly. Its part of the game—trial and error.
yes noiseman, it was a good post
Thanks
I don't know. For years and years, they referred to "the artist formerly known as Prince". I don't even remember what his new name was, but I think he finally changed his name back to Prince.
P.S. I don't really like the name "X", but it's his company. Did I hear that his son is also named "X"?
Does that mean "it blowed up"?
Still, who are we going to revere, people who don’t know the difference between a boy and a girl, or someone who can parallel park a rocket booster? (The booster was successfully captured just before the rest blew up.
Or did they initiate self-destruction because it was out of control?
I think it was a second version of the upper stage so it may have been a test of multiple things. This is what tests are for.
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