The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and officials from the Turks and Caicos Islands have launched probes into SpaceX's explosive Starship rocket test that sent debris streaking over the northern Caribbean and forced airlines to divert dozens of flights.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told TechCrunch it had to "briefly" slow and divert a number of aircraft in the airspace near Puerto Rico, where

The Federal Aviation Administration will require SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation following the apparent midair explosion of Starship S33 during the company's seventh suborbital Starship test flight on Thursday,

After SpaceX’s Starship exploded over Turks and Caicos on Thursday, the FAA launched an investigation, demanding answers into the mishap.

The FAA says it has grounded the Starship vehicle pending a mishap investigation, and it’s working with SpaceX to assess reports of property damage in Turks and Caicos.

The FAA said that there has been no reports of injuries related to falling debris, but some public property in Turks and Caicos were reportedly damaged.

The spectacular in-flight break-up of SpaceX’s Starship rocket during a test flight on Jan. 16 caused several commercial airline flights in the northern Caribbean to briefly enter holding patterns or divert as a precaution against potential impact with falling debris. The FAA is requiring the space...

Since breaking ground in 2014, SpaceX already has built a rocket factory and launch complex. For those already living there, it’s brought a busier neighborhood.

The FAA grounded SpaceX's Starship pending an investigation into the failure that caused the rocket to break apart midflight after launching on Thursday.

By comparison, last year's total of 93 orbital rocket launches breezed to a new Florida annual record. The former record was 72 launches in 2023.

The incident in which a SpaceX rocket broke up after launch demonstrates the challenges the FAA will face as the number of commercial space flights increases.