US grounds Elon Musk’s Starship after rocket exploded leaving planes swerving & flaming wreck causing ‘property damage’
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AN exploding SpaceX Starship caused chaos in the sky - as planes swerved to avoid it and the flaming wreck caused property damage. Flights of the Elon Musk rocket system have now been grounded following the disasterous mishap in South Texas on Thursday.
![[SpaceX Starship SN10 exploding after a test flight.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/elon-musks-spacex-starship-sn10-639539814.jpg?strip=all&w=702)
Aircrafts were forced to quickly avoid the flaming ship as debris caused havoc to the surrounding area. The vehicle broke apart 10 minutes into an unmanned test flight - resulting in a shower of debris which massively impacted surrounding areas. Extraordinary photos from the event show debris glowing bright orange and white as it streaked across the sky.
![[Starship rocket launching from Starbase, Texas.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2023-carried-second-test-launch-860526073.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The carnage left illuminating streaks through the atmosphere. Matt Morley was piloting a Minnesota-based Club Jet from the Chicago Midway International Airport bound for Turks and Caicos at the time of the incident. Morley told CNN he initially thought it was a meteor shower.
![[SpaceX Starship launch.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2025-starship-flight-7-test-964272001_e70d6a.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Matt said: “Then my next thought was, ‘Oh man I hope there was no one on that.’. “I’m glad we took extra fuel. “It gave us lots of options and I had a really good second in command with me who made my job easier calculating our fuel reserves and finding a suitable alternate.”.
![[SpaceX Starship lifting off during its seventh orbital test.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2025-starship-flight-7-test-964272047.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The pilot said he had to divert his plane to Exuma International Airport in the Bahamas after the airspace was shut down. Matt described this encounter as “not too stressful, just crazy to witness.”. Doctor Benjamin Fernando, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Earth and planetary sciences at Johns Hopkins, said: “This event was over one of the most populated areas in the Caribbean, with one of the largest things we’ve ever seen re-enter the atmosphere.
![[Elon Musk walking on Capitol Hill.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/elon-musk-walks-capitol-hill-963793038.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
