SpaceX Starship explosion forced FAA to divert flights to avoid debris

A rocket from Elon Musk’s SpaceX exploded spectacularly during a test flight on Thursday. As one might expect, that caused some issues with air travel.

The Federal Aviation Administration told TechCrunch that it briefly had “slow and divert a number of aircraft” that were flying near the area. Flightradar24 data showed a number of aircraft slowing or changing course in airspace near Puerto Rico. Jet Blue had to delay a couple of flights to San Juan while American Airlines had to divert fewer than 10 flights, CNBC reported.

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In case you missed it, Starship experienced what SpaceX dubbed a “rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn.” In non-euphemism, laymen’s terms, that means the ship went kaboom. Apparent video of the debris falling to Earth, shared by Musk himself, was pretty spectacular to witness.

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Sure, the Starship might’ve exploded and caused issues with flights, but it definitely did look cool as it fell to the ground. So that’s something.