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Orange balls of light fly across the sky as debris from a SpaceX rocket launched in Texas is seen over the Turks and Caicos Islands on January 16, 2025.
Marcus Haworth@marcusahaworth | Marcus Haworth via Reuters
Several commercial flights were diverted or delayed after SpaceX’s Starship the rocket broke up in the seventh flight test on Thursday.
Dozens of flights were affected, according to flight tracker Flightradar24.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it “briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the area of falling spacecraft debris” after warning pilots that it was “in the vicinity of the hazardous area of falling rocket debris.”
The rocket lifted off from SpaceX’s facility near Brownsville, Texas shortly after 5:30 p.m. and was heading east of Texas. It broke down and SpaceX said at X that it “will continue to review data from today’s flight test to better understand the cause.”
The FAA has not received any reports of injuries or damage from the Starship debris, an agency spokesperson told CNBC.
A JetBlue Airways The flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico was diverted to Fort Lauderdale nearly two hours into the flight, according to FlightAware, another flight tracking site. JetBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other flights near Turks and Caicos include FedEx the cargo plane appeared to turn around, according to flight tracking data, while a Spirit Airlines plane also changed course.
The airlines and SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the disruptions.
An American Airlines the spokesman said the carrier had fewer than 10 detours due to the problem.
Delta Air Lines said it had diverted four flights to Caribbean destinations or other airports because of debris warnings.
Airplanes and other commercial flights, including private aircraft, compete for airspaceespecially in the congested area around Florida, but the impacts may depend on the launch.
Australia’s Qantas Airways said it was forced to make last-minute delays to several flights between Johannesburg and Sydney after the Federal Aviation Administration advised it to re-enter SpaceX rockets over much of the Indian Ocean.
“While we try to make changes to our schedule in advance, the schedule for recent departures has changed at late notice which means we have had to delay some flights before departure,” said Ben Holland, the airline’s chief executive. operations center “Customers generally understand that this is out of the control of the airlines and that we cannot fly in the area when the rocket is re-entering. We are in contact with SpaceX to see if they can improve the areas and time windows of the rocket re-entry to minimize future disruptions to passengers on the route.” .
— CNBC’s Michael Sheetz contributed to this report.
