‘UFO!’ SpaceX Starship explodes, Miami airlines grounded. See video that put us on alert
“Did you see the comet?” the swim coach quizzed, twisting toward the University of Miami’s Lake Osceola and nudging a glance to the night sky above the student activities center.
“It was a UFO!” a young swimmer chimed in on the pool deck during a chilly Thursday night practice. “Aliens!” the coach joked as she showed what looked like a meteor shower streak on her phone screen.
They were among people across South Florida who saw streaks of something bright cascading across the sky when it was still light out early Thursday evening around 6:30.
The Federal Aviation Administration did, too. The FAA halted flights, including at Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, after SpaceX confirmed that its Starship launch experienced a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” during its ascent.
Translation: The rocket blew up.
And it showered flaming debris over South Florida and the Caribbean that people caught on their cellphones while driving home or out and about. There were no reported injuries and no humans were in the rocket.
Sorry, not a UFO or aliens.
But the explosion up above had impact down below.
Aviation halt
At MIA, an airlines ground stop was issued at 6:42 p.m. that lasted until about 8 p.m., Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami reported. The advisory cited a “space launch incident.” Average departure delays soared to 36 minutes and a maximum delay twice that time of 74 minutes.
“Some flights at MIA are being delayed due to falling debris from the SpaceX launch over the Atlantic Ocean,” said Greg Chin, Communications Director at MIA.
Same thing at FLL four minutes later. Departure delays averaged 41 minutes and peaked at 67 minutes.
Arlene Satchell, FLL’s spokeswoman, said that the ground stop that had everyone pondering the night skies was “short lived and has been lifted.”
Friday morning it was business as usual. Travel had resumed. SpaceX was investigating. And people were twittering on TikTok, Instagram and other social media accounts about the night before when something in the evening sky freaked the system out.
What SpaceX said
SpaceX, Elon Musk’s aerospace company, issued a statement on his platform X at 7:16 p.m. Thursday.
“During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses. We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause. As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.”
The 400-foot rocket broke up during its eighth flight test, USA Today reported. The flight contained no crew.
The spacecraft had lifted off from Boca Chica, Texas, at 6:30 p.m., Eastern time.
What earth dwellers said
“Space X reached for the stars… and Florida got the leftovers,” quipped Only in Dade on Instagram.
“Space debris over Miami! Holy [expletive.] That’s my first time ever seeing that,” said TikTok user SunAndSand87, identified as “Your average Joe navigating Miami a Day at a Time.”
His image shows the Miami skyline and PortMiami in the forefront and a shower of debris heading toward a dip into the ocean on the horizon.
Miami Herald staff writer Milena Malaver contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 10:11 AM.
