For years, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has expected failure. The company expects rockets to explode, Musk once told podcaster Joe Rogan, because “this is a test program.”
“It’s weird if it doesn’t explode, frankly,” Musk said in 2021, “because we’re trying to develop advanced rockets at a high speed and if you want to get payload to orbit, you have to run things close to the edge.”
SpaceX , when its mammoth Starship rocket — the largest rocket ever built, planned to take humans to Mars — burst into spectacular streaks of flaming debris during its seventh unmanned test flight. Musk called it “entertainment” — but in this new, commercialized space age, experts warn there are dangers from explosions like Starship’s.
“We could be doing this a lot more carefully,” said Samantha Lawler, an astronomy professor at the University of Regina who studies pollution from satellites, including space debris. “You don’t have to blow up rockets in orbit that divert flights and pollute the atmosphere and the ocean. There’s safer ways to do this.”
Surreal to capture the downed ship launch in Turks... Pardon my initial ignorance.
— Jordan Lampe (@JsLampe)
‘No reports of public injury’
Half of Starship’s test flight was a rousing success for SpaceX. The 232-foot rocket booster returned to the launch pad, swooping in to be caught by huge metal arms. It was the second time SpaceX achieved that feat, having first done so in October 2024.
Just moments later, though, SpaceX lost communication with the upper stage of the rocket, still travelling 146 kilometres above the Caribbean. The company later confirmed it had experienced a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”
- Marcia Dunn The Associated Press
The Federal Aviation Administration directed planes out of the area where debris was falling and stopped other planes from taking off, the agency confirmed in a statement to the Star.
“There are no reports of public injury, and the FAA is working with SpaceX and appropriate authorities to confirm reports of public property damage on Turks and Caicos,” the agency told the Star.
‘We’re basically rolling the dice’
Musk, CEO and founder of SpaceX, shared a video of the Starship debris on X, the social media platform he owns. “Success is uncertain,” he wrote, “but entertainment is guaranteed!”
But as the space industry grows and rockets launch more frequently, experts worry the threats from debris will grow, too.
There are three ways for material — whether it be debris, a satellite or spaceship — to return from space, according to Aaron Boley, an astronomy professor at the University of British Columbia and co-director of the Outer Space Institute. Some materials are designed to burn up in the atmosphere, while others return through controlled re-entry, which is when the object comes down at a designated time and place, usually over the ocean, and the area can be cleared beforehand.
Thursday’s unmanned test flight of SpaceX’s Starship ended with the upper stage of the rocket exploding.
Eric Gay/APWhat happened with Starship was an uncontrolled re-entry, with debris unexpectedly returning to Earth in pieces. The falling debris, Boley and Lawler warn, poses a serious — if small — risk to people on the ground.
“Every time we have these uncontrolled re-entries, we’re basically rolling the dice and just hoping it comes out in our favour — and most of the time, it will,” Boley said. “(But) eventually, there is going to be serious property damage. There will be a casualty if practices are not changed.”
Burning materials up in the atmosphere comes with its own risks. The metals from satellites and spaceships can change the composition of the upper atmosphere, Boley said, and can mess with Earth’s climate.
“We’re treating the upper atmosphere as a waste bin,” he said. “We don’t know the extent to which any of this (change to the climate) will happen, because this is all very new. We just know that humanity is changing that fingerprint.”
‘What happens after Jan. 20, I don’t know’
The FAA has required SpaceX to investigate the Starship explosion, and the rocket will only fly again “based on the FAA determining that any system, process or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety.”
And until Donald Trump is sworn in as president on Jan. 20, that will remain true, Boley said. But Musk has ingrained himself with the incoming administration, spending more than a quarter-billion U.S. dollars to help elect Trump. That influence, along with the new administration’s desire to limit regulation, may change the way the FAA regulates SpaceX, Boley said.
“What happens after Jan. 20, I don’t know,” Boley said. “I think we will see attempts to curtail any type of regulation and allow SpaceX to basically move as fast as they want.”
