Orange balls of sunshine fly across the sky as debris from a SpaceX rocket launched in Texas is spotted over Turks and Caicos Islands, January 16, 2025 on this screen grab obtained from social media video.
Marcus Haworth@marcusahaworth | Marcus Haworth Via Reuters
Several industrial flights were diverted or delayed after SpaceX’s Starship rocket broke up during its seventh flight test on Thursday.
Dozens of flights were affected, in line with flight-tracker Flightradar24.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it “briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the realm where space vehicle debris was falling” after it issued a warning to pilots about “dangerous area for falling debris of rocket Starship.”
The rocket took off from SpaceX’s facility near Brownsville, Texas, shortly after 5:30 p.m. ET, and was headed east from Texas. It broke up and SpaceX said on X that it’ll “proceed to review data from today’s flight test to higher understand root cause.”
The FAA has not received any reports of injuries or property damage from Starship’s debris, a spokesperson for the agency told CNBC.
A JetBlue Airways flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico diverted back to Fort Lauderdale, almost two hours into the flight, in line with FlightAware, one other flight-tracking site. JetBlue didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Other flights near Turks and Caicos, including a FedEx cargo jet appeared to show around, in line with flight-tracking data, while a Spirit Airlines plane also modified course.
The airlines and SpaceX didn’t immediately respond for request for comment on the disruptions.
An American Airlines spokeswoman said the carrier had fewer than 10 diversions due to the problem.
Airlines and other industrial flights, in addition to private planes, compete for airspace, especially within the congested area around Florida.
— CNBC’s Michael Sheetz contributed to this report.
