SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster exploded over the Gulf of Mexico on November 14 after its return to the launch tower got called off. Videos of the fireball led many to compare the incident to the 2023 Titan submersible disaster. SpaceX said they are still investigating the cause of the explosion.
Footage of SpaceX's booster explosion has prompted comparisons with the Titan submersible disaster. What is known about the Flight 15 incident?
SpaceX's Super Heavy booster exploded over the Gulf of Mexico during Starship Flight 15 early Saturday, November 14, after its planned return to the launch tower was called off.
Videos of the incident quickly drew comparisons with the 2023 Titan submersible disaster, with some viewers suggesting that the rocket's fuel tanks had imploded before the explosion.
However, while footage shows the booster breaking apart in a fireball, the exact cause and sequence of events have not been established.
WHAT HAPPENED DURING FLIGHT 15?
Starship lifted off from SpaceX's Starbase facility in Texas at 4:17 am IST on November 14, with its Super Heavy booster successfully carrying the upper-stage spacecraft skyward before the two separated.
The booster was supposed to return to the launch tower, where giant mechanical arms, known as Chopsticks, would catch it.
However, SpaceX called off the recovery attempt and diverted the booster towards a designated landing area in the Gulf of Mexico.
About six-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, the booster exploded over the water.
THE BOOSTER EXPLODED BUT WAS IT AN IMPLOSION?
Videos shared online showed the booster descending towards the sea before a large fireball engulfed it.
Corners of social media drew attention to footage that appeared to show the booster's tanks collapsing inward, comparing the visuals to the Titan submersible, which imploded under extreme ocean pressure in 2023.
Some users initially suggested that a loss of internal pressure could have caused the tanks to buckle.
What's confirmed so far, however, is that the booster was diverted from its planned return and subsequently exploded over the Gulf of Mexico.
Whether Super Heavy's tanks lost pressure, whether an inward collapse occurred before the explosion, and whether the flight termination system caused the apparent breakup, are all up for speculation until SpaceX decided to share an explanation.
SpaceX commentator Dan Huot said the company was still investigating why the booster could not return to the launch tower, and apart from that, no detailed explanation of the incident had been released.
Without confirmed technical findings, the comparison with the Titanic submersible remains a visual observation rather than an established explanation of what happened to the booster.