17 Jan 2025, 07:28 AM IST SpaceX Starship rocket explodes after launch, Elon Musk issues statement(AP) SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded just minutes into its seventh test flight, an unexpected setback after the Elon Musk-led company had made steady progress advancing the vehicle’s capabilities. While the top section of the rocket was lost, SpaceX succeeded in another complicated maneuver, bringing the spacecraft’s Super Heavy lower portion back down to Earth and catching it in midair using giant mechanical arms. Why SpaceX Starship exploded? Elon Musk explains… Explaining the failure, Elon Musk shares on X, Preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity. Apart from obviously double-checking for leaks, we will add fire suppression to that volume and probably increase vent area. Nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month. Meanwhile, FAA revealed it briefly slowed down and diverted the aircraft around area where space vehicle debris was falling, normal operations have resumed. Commercial flights diverted Commercial flights operated by JetBlue Airways Corp. and American Airlines Group Inc. were forced to take avoidance action after a failed SpaceX Starship test flight exploded on Thursday, a Bloomberg report said. Some flights over the Caribbean were seen diverting or circling mid-flight on tracking website Flightradar24. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that it slowed and diverted aircraft around the area where the space vehicle debris was falling. Normal operations have since resumed, the US aviation regulator said. All you need to know about the Starship explosion The largest and most powerful rocket ever built lifted off the launchpad at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas at 4:37 p.m. local time Thursday. It was supposed to attempt to reach near orbital speeds and deploy 10 dummy spacecraft, designed to mimic the size, shape and weight of the upgraded SpaceX Starlink satellites that Starship will be launching in the future. But a little under 8 1/2-minutes into the mission, SpaceX lost communications with Starship. Launch commentators then said the vehicle had been “lost.” Musk later reposted a video on his social media site X of debris falling from the sky, saying “success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed.”