Air traffic was disrupted across Florida when a SpaceX Starship, a prototype of the spacecraft that Elon Musk says will one day take people to Mars, disintegrated during its latest test flight.

For the second consecutive time, the upper stage of the most powerful rocket ever built malfunctioned. It started spinning out of control after several engines went out and then lost contact with mission control.

Photographs and videos posted on the social media site X by users saying they were along the Florida coast showed signs of the spacecraft breaking up in the sky.

On Thursday evening, departures out of two major airports in Florida — Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport — were delayed by as much as 45 minutes because of “space launch debris,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Departures out of Philadelphia International Airport were delayed by 30 minutes because of space launch debris as well, the F.A.A. reported.

In a post on the website X, SpaceX described what happened in a statement.

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

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