March 6 (Reuters) – SpaceX’s colossal Starship rocket suffered a mid-flight explosion during its test mission on Thursday, just minutes after blasting off from its Texas launch site. The incident triggered a temporary suspension of air traffic in some regions of Florida by the FAA, marking the second consecutive failure this year for Elon Musk’s ambitious Mars-bound spacecraft initiative.

Clips widely circulated on social media captured blazing fragments streaking across the twilight skies near southern Florida and the Bahamas. These visuals aligned with SpaceX’s live transmission, which showed Starship beginning to spin out of control before losing power and breaking apart during flight.

This marks the eighth major test launch of the Starship system and follows closely behind the seventh attempt, which also ended in a fiery demise. These sequential setbacks occurred during flight stages that SpaceX had previously mastered, delivering a blow to a program Musk has pushed to advance rapidly in 2024.

The 403-foot (123-meter) rocket is pivotal to Musk’s long-term vision of transporting humans to Mars, possibly by the end of this decade.

On Friday, Musk downplayed the incident, referring to it as “a minor setback.” He added in a post on X, his social media site, “Progress is a matter of time. The next vehicle will be ready in 4 to 6 weeks.”

Following the explosion, the Federal Aviation Administration quickly implemented temporary flight restrictions at airports in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, and Orlando due to potential “space launch debris,” and confirmed it had initiated an official mishap investigation.

The Starship launched at approximately 6:30 p.m. ET (2330 GMT) from SpaceX’s expansive facilities in Boca Chica, Texas. The Super Heavy booster—Starship’s lower stage—executed a successful return maneuver and was caught midair by a tower-mounted catching mechanism as intended.

Soon after, SpaceX’s broadcast displayed the upper Starship segment tumbling in space. Their engine status display revealed multiple systems shutting down. Communication was subsequently lost, drawing immediate comparisons to the previous failed flight.

“Unfortunately, this is similar to what happened last time—so we have some experience dealing with it,” remarked SpaceX commentator Dan Huot during the live feed.

Later that night, SpaceX issued a statement explaining that Starship had suffered an “energetic event” in its engine section, which damaged several engines.

“That interruption compromised attitude control and resulted in the final loss of contact,” stated the company. “The last signal was received nearly 9 minutes and 30 seconds after launch.”

SpaceX confirmed that the debris did not contain hazardous materials, posing no environmental concern.

The previous Starship attempt, back in January, also ended in flames—exploding roughly eight minutes into flight and scattering parts across the Caribbean, including minor damage to a vehicle in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The FAA, which oversees non-governmental rocket operations, announced that SpaceX must investigate the cause of this latest failure and gain federal approval before another launch attempt can be made.

Despite the previous incident still under review, the FAA authorized Thursday’s flight last month—stating that it had analyzed SpaceX’s updated license and preliminary findings from the earlier crash before giving the green light.

The goal for this mission was for Starship to nearly complete one Earth orbit before reentering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Indian Ocean—a trial simulation of future land-based landing procedures, a crucial next step in the rocket’s development path.