SpaceX is a privately owned aerospace company, founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk in 2002. Their mission, as outlined on their website, is to revolutionize spaceflight by making it more accessible and affordable and to enable sustainable living on other planets. As of 2025, SpaceX is valued at over $350 billion, making it the world’s most valuable private startup. The company has been working on its Starship project, which aims to build new launchpads near its primary launch sites in Florida. However, they are also working in Texas on the early developments of the next-gen rocket. The purpose of the Starship project is to set up a moon base to support future space exploration.
On March 6th, the craft successfully blasted off from the ground and headed to space. The Super Heavy booster nailed its landing on the moon. However, about 9 minutes into the flight, many of the raptor engines began to malfunction causing an energetic event in the aft of the ship, leading to SpaceX losing control of the altitude. A prior launch occurred just weeks before. Now, SpaceX is trying out a method called “rapid iterative development”, meaning constructing models rapidly and quickly testing them on a launch pad, allowing for trial and error.
The crash over the southern part of Turks and Caicos caused debris to fall across the island, but no injuries or significant property damage was reported. Multiple people across parts of the Caribbean recorded debris raining down from space. Flights surrounding the area had delays with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issuing ground stoppages across multiple airports in southern Florida. The government in Turks and Caicos was in contact with Space X, FAA, and a U.K agency after the explosion. The FAA has ordered an investigation on the accident.
This is not the first time a Starship flight has exploded. On January 16th, 2025, Starship’s seventh test flight exploded in roughly the same location as the March flight, both occurring over the islands of Turks and Caicos. There were no injuries, but one car was hit and debris was found on the islands. Additionally, in the most recent explosion, debris significantly impacted plane travel in the area. However, the January explosion primarily impacted air travel over Turks and Caicos, while the most recent explosion shut down flights at Florida airports. The January explosion prompted the FAA, SpaceX, and local authorities to work together to investigate the incident. This investigation was still ongoing when the FAA approved the March flight that resulted in the most recent explosion.
