Government officials in the Turks and Caicos Islands announced on Friday that debris from a failed SpaceX rocket test landed in the Caribbean region. Fortunately, there have been no reports of injuries and only minor property damage has been noted. The statement from the government highlighted that the Turks and Caicos Islands Airport Authority took precautionary measures by diverting flights within their airspace and grounding aircraft immediately following the incident.
The mishap occurred during SpaceX’s uncrewed seventh test flight of its massive Starship rocket and spacecraft on Thursday. Approximately nine minutes after liftoff, contact was lost with the Starship, resulting in the upper stage disintegrating over areas of the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean. Eyewitness accounts and videos shared online captured the sight of luminous debris streaking across the sky.
Officials in the Turks and Caicos indicated they currently do not foresee any specific dangers from the Starship debris, although they cautioned that such debris could potentially harbor hazardous materials that pose health risks. They urged anyone who comes across suspected space debris to refrain from touching it, document the time and location, take a photograph if feasible, and report it to national security via the email address provided, with the subject line “Space X Debris.” The government also clarified that the debris remains the property of SpaceX.
Collaborating with partners in the United Kingdom and the UK Space Agency, local authorities are addressing how to manage the debris while ensuring public health and safety. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has also grounded the Starship rocket as it investigates the midflight failure. The FAA is coordinating with local officials to verify claims of damage to public property in the Turks and Caicos.
In the aftermath of the incident, the FAA established a “Debris Response Area” and temporarily halted or diverted aircraft in the vicinity of the debris fall zone. Some aircraft had to change their flight paths due to low fuel while waiting outside the affected zones.
Rey Garcia, a tennis instructor at the Turks and Caicos Islands Tennis Academy, witnessed debris suspected to be from Starship land on a tennis court. He described the experience as frightening, initially mistaking the event for a meteorite fall. Garcia recounted seeing smoke and hearing loud explosions as pieces fell onto the tennis and golf courses, stating, “It kept exploding and exploding and exploding. It felt so close.”
The ill-fated test flight launched from SpaceX’s “Starbase” facility in Brownsville, Texas, and was intended to fly over the Gulf of Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula, continuing eastward near Cuba and across the Atlantic. If successful, the Starship was planned to ultimately splash down in the Indian Ocean.
Starship stands as the most powerful rocket ever created, towering at 400 feet. It consists of a first-stage booster known as Super Heavy and the upper-stage Starship spacecraft. This system is anticipated to play a vital role in NASA’s objectives for returning to the moon, with SpaceX selected to transport astronauts to the lunar surface during the Artemis III mission, slated for a 2027 launch. Additionally, Elon Musk has indicated that Starship may be utilized for future Mars missions.
