Elon Musk's Starship 8 exploded in the sky over the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, scattering debris across the Caribbean.

The flight was the second conducted by SpaceX this year, after the launch of Starship 7 in January along a similar flight path, which also exploded.

The launch of Starship 8 just a few months after Starship 7, shows that SpaceX is accelerating its space exploration programs.

Musk is unlikely to be phased by the latest setback as SpaceX has a longstanding policy of "rapid iterative development," a philosophy of learning from successive mistakes.

What To Know

The last two SpaceX flights, both launched from Florida, have caused debris to fall on several Caribbean islands following their detonations.

According to reports from Reuters, Flight 7, which launched on January 16, led to debris being found on the Turks and Caicos Islands, some of which damaged local vehicles. So far, this is the only recorded damage caused by the launches.

Falling debris from Flight 8 has been reported by observers from the Dominican Republic to the Bahamas, according to SpaceNews.

Observers in other countries, including Cuba, did not report any debris on the ground but were able to see the explosion in the sky, leading to viral social media videos.

The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily halted flights into major Florida airports, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Orlando on Thursday evening.

The administration cited "falling space debris" shortly after the explosion as the reason for halting flights, with delays lasting for up to 45 minutes.

What People Are Saying

In a statement on the explosion, SpaceX said: "Any surviving debris would have fallen within the pre-planned Debris Response Area. There are no toxic materials present in the debris and no significant impacts are expected to occur to marine species or water quality.

"During Starship's ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost. Our team immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses.

"We will review the data from today's flight test to better understand root cause. As always, success comes from what we learn, and today's flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship's reliability."

What Happens Next

SpaceX is set to help astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore leave the International Space Station later this month, after a problem with their capsule caused their return to Earth to be extensively delayed.