On Thursday, March 6, SpaceX‘s starship spacecraft exploded in space minutes after its launch. It was Starship’s eighth flight test, which lifted off from Starbase in Texas at 5:30 pm CT. The explosion led the FAA to halt air traffic at multiple airports in Florida.
Elon Musk‘s SpaceX live-streamed the launch, which showed engines cutting off from the rocket approximately eight minutes into the launch. SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said during the webcast, “We just saw some engines go out. It looks like we are losing altitude control of the ship.” The spacecraft reportedly spun uncontrollably with its engines cut off before the communication was lost.