The first flight of SpaceX’s Starship rocket was filmed in slow motion and yielded a spectacular video, published by the company on Thursday (20). The sequence lasts less than 30 seconds, and was captured by a camera installed on the launch tower at Starbase, Texas.
The video begins with the Raptor engines in the Super Heavy thruster firing, which cause a strong sound. Then you can gradually see the complete structure of the 120 m rocket; as it rises, the engines appear, but are soon hidden by dust and smoke.
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The images were captured at the beginning of the flight test carried out on Thursday, which was the first time the rocket flew with the Super Heavy and Starship prototypes installed together. The system left the platform and flew for about three minutes, but launch footage indicates that not all engines worked correctly.
Also, there was a glitch during the separation of the stages: they stayed together, and it wasn’t long before the Starship started to tip over. Then SpaceX activated the flight termination system of the rocket and its booster, which ended up being destroyed approximately four minutes after leaving the platform.
The explosion produced a shower of particles in cities close to the launch site, photographed on different surfaces. Still, the explosive outcome of the rocket flight test was also recorded by satellites, which observed both the smoke from the launch and the peak of light caused by the explosion.
The performance of the test and even the results were the reason for several celebrations on the part of SpaceX, which was able to collect data on the performance of the Starship in real conditions. This data will help the company to apply improvements for the next flight tests, still without a date to happen.
