On January 16th, 2025, a SpaceX Starship was launched from South Texas Rocket Facilities; not long after launch, communications were lost, and everything went downhill.
What Happened on January 16th
On this day, SpaceX Starbase released their “7th flight test” of the starship referred to as a “mega-rocket”, as this spacecraft was launched, everything was working correctly and on time as the first two stages were completed without fail as “the Super Heavy booster and Ship upper-stage spacecraft — separated on time, and Super Heavy returned to Starbase as planned, where it was caught by the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms.”
However, not long after this eye-catching moment, “its partner’s big moment. The 171-foot-tall (52 m) spacecraft broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean roughly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, creating a sky show seen by observers in the Turks and Caicos islands and other nearby locales.” (space.com)
At that time, after separation approximately 8 minutes into takeoff, the base of SpaceX had lost all communication with this starship, which was it exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, which quickly gained attention because of the spectacle it appeared to be by locals in the area of this explosion.
Response of SpaceX – Elon Musk
As commonly known, SpaceX was founded by its CEO, Elon Musk, which led to questions rising immediately by the minute as the public was concerned about the circumstances at hand.
The official SpaceX “X” account soon released a statement following this explosion;
“Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today’s flight test to better understand the root cause. With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability…”
Effects on Surrounding Areas
The areas affected by this starship explosion included the Caribbean and the British islands of Turks and Caicos.
When this ship exploded, it left behind landfills for locals, but it also covered the sky with debris and ultimately polluted affected areas. This explosion was so extravagant that residents had to go out to clean and tidy beaches and even areas around homes, as the landfill had covered many of these seemingly once “luxury” areas.
Even though this debris affected the civilians nearby by the explosion, it also left more dangerous damage, such as fallen wires and large pieces of the spacecraft reported from hours to days after this accident. This left more and more people angered as it is a widespread belief that SpaceX should be coming to clean up the mess they left, but instead, they left it to the area’s residents.
“I’m into the launches and what Musk is doing,” Amos Lucker, the owner of a Providenciales car rental service, told CNN, “but I think he should be liable for the cleanup, too.”
Ultimately, the public consistently believes that Elon Musk should have taken responsibility for the damage and landfill he had caused to innocent civilians affected by his accidental starship explosion.
