EXPLOSION OF SPACEX Starship: What pollution in the atmosphere?
Destruction of Starship 33 above the Caribbean Sea on January 16, 2025. © screenshot.
Starship 33, namely the upper floor of the giant SpaceX rocket “Starship-Tout-Court”, exploded in flight uncontrolled in mid-January.
The burning metal rain and its evaporation in the air had something aesthetic, spectacular and even poetic, exactly like a rain of shooting stars, but this type of event is not without consequence for the thin film of gas thanks to which we breathe.
Uncontrolled explosion of the starship at 8 min 25 s and 146 km altitude
The explosion produced at around 146 km altitude (according to SpaceX telemetry) thus released large quantities of materials which then fell into our atmosphere. The second floor of Elon Musk's Megafusée weighs about 85 t vacuum, without fuel, which was more or less his state at this altitude. The starship had then taken off for 8 min 25 s and we now know that its destruction is a consequence of the failure of its engines.
According to Connor Barker, an atmospheric chemistry expert at the University of London College, the ship could have generated 45.5 t of metallic oxides and 40 t metrics of nitrogen oxides. The latter have a very harmful effect on the ozone layer.
About a third of annual pollution due to the explosion of meteorites
The expert specifies, however, that it is only an estimate. It would also correspond to around a third of natural annual pollution due to meteorites which also burn in our atmosphere, and which generally contain around 20 % iron. It is not known exactly how much vaporized or that fell in the form of fragments, even if many photos of this coastal pollution have been published since.
A tourist guide shows debris from the stars in Little Water Cay. © Grace Barrasso
The boss of the FAA, regular target of Elon Musk, thanked and replaced
It is not a surprise: when an American president takes office, it is customary that he names New heads in key posts. Responsible for issuing flight authorizations in national airspace, the director of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), is one. Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX and Tesla, now also a member of the Cabinet Trump, did not carry former chef Michael Whitaker in his heart, the latter having also blocked the fire permits of the Starship following the semi-landscape of January .
As a tragic air collision has just taken place in Washingtonon January 31, killing 67 people, Donald Trump blamed the diversity policies of the Democrats and the FAA, which would have reduced the level of requirement for recruitments.
The new president appointed an acting director of the FAA, Christopher Rocheleau, whose exactly we know how he will deal with the very special case of Elon Musk. We have not found them so far, Rocheleau being simply known as a veteran of the Federal Agency.
