SpaceX debris causes West Coast flight delays

Yesterday's nationwide grounding of American flights drew all attention, but on Friday the 13th, another concerning incident occurred before the FAA's mandate. West Coast travelers faced flight delays due to concerns over debris from SpaceX's recent Starship launch potentially damaging planes. The launch of the largest interplanetary rocket ever built, capable of carrying up to 100 passengers for long-duration flights, involved significant engineering challenges and required shedding considerable amounts of debris to reach escape velocity.

While most of this debris orbits Earth as space junk, some inevitably crash back to our planet. Any issues during the launch could have posed serious dangers, not only to air traffic but also to pedestrians on the ground. Fortunately, no one was harmed, and after a brief delay primarily affecting flights to and from Hawaii, air travel resumed before the broader nationwide shutdown.

SpaceX's Starship test flight concludes later in the day, so those interested can live-stream the attempted capture of the massive rocket online.