By: Staff Writer
March 11, 2025
Another failed SpaceX rocket has scattered debris all over The Bahamas as a search and recovery team lands in the country to assess the damage.
A SpaceX recovery team arrived in The Bahamas on Friday to coordinate with Bahamian authorities after debris from its exploded Starship rocket, which launched from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, was seen falling over The Bahamas on Thursday evening, the government said on Sunday evening.
The failed rocket, which was seen visibly in the sky on Thursday evening, is the second failed SpaceX rocket to disintegrate over Bahamian airspace and territorial area.
SpaceX lost communication with Starship just over nine minutes after its 6:30 p.m. ET launch from SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica near Brownsville, Texas and said that the rocket “experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly” in a post on X.
“No debris was discovered that day, but reports of debris near Ragged Island surfaced on social media,” the government said.
Yesterday, senior Department of Environmental Planning and Protection officials joined the SpaceX recovery team once again to oversee operations, the Bahamian government added.
It said, “Aerial reconnaissance successfully identified debris, and recovery efforts commenced, resulting in the retrieval of several items. These efforts will continue as the team conducts further assessments along the Ragged Island coastline.”
Billionaire Elon Musk, owner of the SpaceX programme, had not posted about the second Starship explosion in two months on his X account as of Thursday night.
Environmentalists in The Bahamas want the partnership between the Bahamian government and SpaceX to be stopped, citing environmental harm and damage.
While Antigua is demanding the payment of taxes from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Belize is limiting its expansion, officials announced in February that the Bahamas has given the okay for SpaceX rockets to land in Bahamian territory.
The first successful landing was on February 18, 2025 as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket landed on an autonomous droneship off the coast of The Exumas in The Bahamas. This was the first time a SpaceX rocket landed outside the United States.