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.
Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, trends, and the occasional hot take. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).
