Musk’s SpaceX Starship explosion sparks panic and curiosity in Haiti

PORT-DE-PAIX — On Thursday afternoon, several community members in Port-de-Paix, northwest Haiti, reported seeing luminous objects in the skies. The objects moved westward between the nearby island of La Tortue and the city before shifting east and northeast toward Fort-Liberté, the principal town in the Northeast Department.

Many onlookers were uncertain about what they were witnessing. Some speculated it was a missile, while others thought it might be a natural phenomenon. Minutes later, reports emerged identifying the objects as debris from SpaceX’s Starship, which had exploded during a flight test over the Caribbean. While the rocket’s second stage failed, the Super Heavy booster was successfully recovered.

“This phenomenon in the sky seemed like a missile from Russia or North Korea. It surprised me a lot—I thought it was an armed attack,” said Woodsen Saint-Jean, a 16-year-old.  

Reports later confirmed that SpaceX, American tech mogul and billionaire Elon Musk’s aerospace company, had lost all contact with the second stage of the Starship following an anomaly during a test in Texas. Like other Caribbean countries, the airspace over Haiti was illuminated by the debris from Starship Flight 7. 

“We lost all communication with the ship,” said spokesperson Dan Huot. “This clearly indicates an issue with the upper stage.” Another SpaceX manager later confirmed that technicians were unable to recover the spacecraft, as reported by BFMTV.

The Super Heavy first stage, however, performed a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 30 kilometers off the coast of Texas. Both stages were expected to sink, with no recovery planned.  

“Elon Musk needs to be cautious with these tests. It totally freaked me out when I saw it in Haiti’s skies. At first, I thought it was an eclipse,” Wilder Julien, a 23-year-old in Port-de-Paix, said.  

SpaceX starship explosion creates air traffic panic

In 30 minutes and 8 seconds after the device took off, they noticed that there was a problem: the two stages had separated from each other, and Elon Musk’s company had lost all contact with the upper stage of the rocket. It had already flown at an altitude of over 90 miles. After the explosion, the remaining debris scattered and fell across Caribbean countries such as Haiti and the Turks and Caicos. Given the panic, the American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) asked airlines to suspend certain flights from Fort Lauderdale to Caribbean countries.

The FAA reported a disruption of air traffic and briefly slowed and diverted planes around the area where space debris was falling on  Thursday. Normal operations have since resumed, but the authorities regularly close the airspace for space launches and re-entries.

  “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed,” Musk reacted via his social media platform X, sharing a video of debris streaking across the skies of the Turks and Caicos Islands.  

In another post, Musk explained that the explosion was likely caused by an oxygen and fuel leak in the cavity above the firewall of the Starship engines. The leak generated enough pressure to overwhelm the ventilation system. Despite this failure, Musk announced plans for new launches with improved versions of the Starship and booster.  

“In addition to thoroughly checking for leaks, we will add a fire suppression system to that area and likely increase the ventilation capacity. So far, nothing suggests we need to delay the next launch beyond next month,”  Musk added.  

Meanwhile, apart from Port-de-Paix, the passage of the luminous debris sparked widespread curiosity across several parts of Haiti, particularly in the South, Nippes, Northeast, and West departments. Faced with the unknown, many Haitians—especially those reacting on social media—speculated wildly about the event and participated in the game of “Did you see it, and where did you watch it?”

In the videos, some Haitians are seen holding what appears to be a piece of metal, which they believe is part of the debris from the SpaceX Starship that may have fallen in their neighborhood. Others are seriously wondering if there might have been victims within the Haitian community when the SpaceX Starship crossed Haitian airspace.

In rockets like Starship, the first stages are designed to return to Earth for reuse. However, this was not the case for Starship’s Flight 7, which failed to meet its objectives. Debris from such rockets can sometimes travel great distances, posing potential risks. It is possible that fragments from the Jan. 16 test may have fallen in Haiti.

Notably, in 2015, debris from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket washed up on the shores of the Scilly Isles, and in 2021, pieces from another launch crashed onto a private farm in Washington state.

The post Musk’s SpaceX Starship explosion sparks panic and curiosity in Haiti appeared first on The Haitian Times.

---

Musk’s SpaceX Starship explosion sparks panic and curiosity in Haiti was first posted on January 17, 2025 at 4:12 pm.