The last time a Starship upper stage failed was in March last year, as it was reentering Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, but rarely has a SpaceX mishap caused widespread disruptions to air traffic.

However, the rocket system's upper stage, which was packed with upgrades for the flight test, did not survive the launch and appeared to break apart over the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean Sea. SpaceX confirmed on the live broadcast that the spacecraft's engines started to go out prior to planned engine cut-off and Starship later stopped delivering telemetry data.