'It blew up': Social media mockery takes off as SpaceX rebrands midair explosion

The midair explosion of SpaceX’s Starship rocket took over social media on Thursday with space watchers ridiculing the Elon Musk-owned company’s rebranding of the incident as “a rapid unscheduled disassembly.” “Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn,” the company wrote in a post on X of the company's seventh test of its mega-rocket. “Teams will continue to review data from today's flight test to better understand root cause.” Musk himself weighed in on his own X account, ensuring his space enthusiast followers that “nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month,” and thanking supporters like NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who just months ago called for Musk to be investigated for his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Starship exploded.” He later shared a photo circulating social media of a colorful array of fireballs falling from the sky and added: “Who knew that when Space X Starship explodes it looks like an LGBTQ pride flag.” “SpaceX: Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn,” artist Art Candee wrote to her followers on Bluesky. Legal report Chris Geidner posted to his social media followers: “Yeah, ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’ is going in the books.” “The harbinger of Tuesday January 20, the rapid unscheduled disassembly of democracy,” teacher Paulette Feeney told her followers.