The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) informed TechCrunch that it had to “temporarily” slow down and reroute several aircraft in the vicinity of Puerto Rico, where debris was observed falling following the explosion of SpaceX’s Starship during a test flight on Thursday.
Following the explosion of the spacecraft en route to space, numerous flights were tracked entering holding patterns or altering their flight paths in the affected airspace, as demonstrated by data from Flightradar24. The FAA has since confirmed that normal air traffic operations have returned.
The diversions led to disruptions at several airports. Miami International Airport issued a warning of a 30-minute delay due to the “rocket launch anomaly,” as noted on the FAA’s website. Similarly, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida also indicated a brief delay for the same reason.
Earlier on Thursday, SpaceX’s Starship launched from the company’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas, marking the seventh test flight of the heavy launch system. SpaceX successfully captured the colossal booster rocket during its descent using the launch tower for a second time. The aim was to evaluate a host of new equipment and upgrades on the Starship segment.
SpaceX faced criticism this week when Qantas airlines raised concerns that debris from the company’s rocket launches was apparently leading to delays for some of its flights.
Shortly after the spacecraft disintegrated on Thursday, videos and images of the debris quickly gained traction on social media. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted one of the videos, remarking: “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!”
Compiled by Techarena.au.
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