Passenger films moment Elon Musk’s Starship rocket exploded minutes after launch

A plane passenger has captured the exact moment Elon Musk’s Starship rocket exploded mere minutes after its launch.

A plane passenger has captured the exact moment Elon Musk’s Starship rocket exploded just minutes after launch.

The insane images, which were captured by Instagram user @jetset.with.jess and shared to the platform by the @fitaviatorsclub account, revealed bright streaks of debris lighting up the sky which could clearly be seen from the aircraft.

It sparked an outpouring of interest, with social media users variously describing the vision as “amazing” and a “front row” and “top tier view” of the spectacle.

“Perks of the window seat,” one Instagram user wrote, while another joked it was the “most expensive fireworks ever”.

A plane passenger has captured the exact moment Elon Musk’s Starship rocket exploded mere minutes after its launch.

The SpaceX rocket’s seventh test flight was launched from the Boca Chica in southern Texas on Thursday, and the explosion sent bright orange debris raining down over the Caribbean in the Turks and Caicos Islands as it reinterred the atmosphere.

“Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!” billionaire Mr Musk wrote on his social media platform alongside footage of the incident.

According to SpaceX, the rocket “experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn”.

“Teams will continue to review data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause,” the company posted on X.

As the rocket disintegrated in the sky, nearby air traffic was forced to reroute away from the area.

The rocket was supposed to soar across The Gulf of Mexico from Texas and lap the Earth, with 10 dummy satellites to practice releasing.

But while the rocket’s booster performed flawlessly – making a successful return and being caught between two giant mechanical arms at the launch pad – the rocket itself vanished.

Crews lost contact with the Starship, with the company’s livestream host confirming: “At this point in time, we can confirm we did lose the ship”.

The rocket was supposed to soar across The Gulf of Mexico from Texas and lap the Earth. Picture: SpaceX/AFP

“It looks like we lost contact a little under eight and a half minutes into the flight.”

The last data received from Starship indicated the rocket had reached an altitude of 90 miles (145km), with a velocity of 13,245 mph (3679.1667 kmph) before contact was lost.

SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot said: “It was great to see a booster come down, but we are obviously bummed out about ship”.

He added that it would take time to analyse the data and determine what went wrong.

Mr Musk’s space company had hoped this test flight would mark a step forward in its goal to build a fully reusable spacecraft capable of carrying humans to Mars.

He plans to launch actual Starlinks on Starships before moving on to other satellites and, eventually, crews.

The Starship prototype had been heavily modified since its last test flight in November 2023.

SpaceX had also made upgrades to the booster “catch” tower, which had been damaged during the previous test.

– With The Sun