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SpaceX's Starship exploded mid-air during its seventh test flight on Thursday, forcing airlines to divert flights in order to avoid collisions with falling spacecraft debris.
Seana Smith and Brad Smith report on the latest developments surrounding this incident.
The same day, Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket reached orbit on its first flight. Blue Origin was founded by Amazon (AMZN) founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here.
This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
SpaceX's Starship rocket exploded during its seventh test flight on Thursday. We're looking at various cell phone footage captured by a group of people visiting the Turks and Caicos Islands. You can see debris from the rocket there, falling from the sky. Now, SpaceX saying that any of that debris would have fallen into a designated hazard zone. They're asking people to contact local authorities or the SpaceX debris hotline if you think you identified a piece of debris. The FAA alerted to some flight delays due to this debris. Now, the Starship rocket successfully lifting off from a base in Texas on Thursday afternoon. Recording and transmitting from the rocket was lost about 8 and a half minutes into the flight. Elon Musk's SpaceX saying that the initial data indicated a fire had developed, leading to the explosion.
The loss came just hours after Blue Origin successfully launched its New Glenn rocket into orbit during its debut flight. The Bezos-backed space company, taking a step closer in its challenge to Musk's business. SpaceX did manage to successfully land the Starship's booster. You can see video of the booster aligning with the tower and coming into land. The company did not attempt the booster catch on the sixth test flight back in November, citing some of the tech issues. SpaceX is in competition with the likes of Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Virgin Galactic, and United Launch Alliance, but for different reasons in some cases.
