Elon Musk’s starship flight 7 broke into pieces in space causing a light show and debris falling in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The booming sounds and trail of fire and smoke seen in the skies on Thursday, January 16, 2025, came from Elon Musk’s Starship Flight 7 which broke apart just 8.5 minutes after it was launched into mission.
In an exclusive interview, Tariq Malik, Editor-in-Chief of Space.com, told The TCI SUN that SpaceX is studying the incident to understand why the Ship vehicle failed during ascent, and what changes will be needed for the next Flight 8 test later this year.
“The fireballs and debris visible that are being reported over Turks and Caicos appear to be the remains of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 7 Ship vehicle, which failed and broke apart as it was launching to space on Thursday. SpaceX launched the Starship vehicle and its Super Heavy booster from the company’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas, but reported an anomaly with the Ship vehicle as it was nearing its final engine burn,” Malik explained.
The Starship Flight 7 Ship was a new version of Starship that carried several upgrades. It had redesigned flaps and 25% more fuel onboard. This Ship was carrying 10 dummy satellites to be deployed on the test, but those were lost, too.
Persons across the Turks and Caicos Islands were left in a state of confusion, shock and fear as to what was taking place. Videos circulated across the islands of people watching the grand show, while others had pieces of debris falling by their sides.
And on Friday, 17 January, TCIG Officials convened a meeting with relevant partners in the United Kingdom including the UK Space Agency, who are supporting the post incident response, including technical expertise on the handling of debris, health and safety risks, protocols and procedures after Elon Musk’s starship 7 exploded over the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The UK Air Accident Investigation Branch have been notified and discussions are ongoing with the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) who will liaise with SpaceX.
This is now an active investigation led by the US FAA in liaison with UK and TCI counterparts.
We are not at this time aware of any specific risks related to the re-entry of space debris on Thursday 16 January. However, space objects can sometimes contain hazardous materials which can cause serious harm to health.
Members of the public who come across objects that they think might be space debris should take the following actions:
- Do not touch the object
- Make a note of the location (Island and exact coordinates) of the object and the time (including any maritime observations of debris)
- If possible take a photograph of the object (without touching it) alongside another object for scale
- Notify the authorities by sending the details to nationalsecurity@gov.tc with the subject title Space X Debris.
- Space debris remains the property of the spacecraft owner
If you have already handled what you think might be space debris please put it in a safe place where others will not handle it and inform the authorities at nationalsecurity@gov.tc. Further advice will be provided for the collation of the debris.
Elon Musk, on his X feed, (formerly Twitter) on the video over the Turks and Caicos Islands, stated quote, “Success is Uncertain, but Entertainment is Guaranteed.”
