SpaceX launched its Starship megarocket, Earth’s most powerful rocket, on its second test flight this weekend, and while the vehicle may have met an explosive end, it’s absolutely spectacular to watch it fly.
Stunning photos and videos captured by SpaceX, Space.com, news outlets and the public show the sheer spectacle of SpaceX’s second test launch of Starship, which launched early Saturday, Nov. 18, from the Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas.
In a major milestone for SpaceX, the rocket’s two stages have successfully separated. The Super Heavy booster exploded shortly thereafter, while Starship’s upper stage exploded before completing launch ignition. Still, SpaceX hailed its second test flight, which reached space and flew higher, farther and longer than its first launch in April, as a success, and will now work on the flight to make necessary improvements for the next launch.
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“Seeing the Starship launch in person was incredible,” Space.com’s Josh Dinner said of the footage.
During dinner, photos of Starship’s launch were taken at the Cameron Country Amphitheater on South Padre Island; Here a large number of spectators gathered long before sunrise to choose a great place to watch the launch.
“Even from 5 miles away, you could see the raw power coming from the engines as they cleared the launch tower,” Dinner said. “It was very impressive.”
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Photojournalist Timothy A. Clary, with news agencies AFP and Getty Images, captured stunning photographs of the Starship launch, including close-up images of the rocket’s liftoff and ascent just before the scene left.
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Some of the most surprising first photos came from SpaceX itself; This scene captures a specific moment of stage separation, testing the hot staging technique – something new for Starship on this flight – where the upper Starship upper stage ignites its engines before breaking free. Super Heavy first stage booster.
SpaceX and Dinner also captured some great close-ups of the combined Starship and Super Heavy, which are nearly 400 feet (122 meters) tall, as they soared over the Gulf of Mexico.
Shortly after the stage separated, the Super Heavy booster exploded in what SpaceX called a “rapid, unscheduled disassembly.” The company will now try to understand what led to this failure after the hot phase and how to avoid it in the next test flight.
On social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, viewers and photographers were excited to witness the Starship launch test.
But some of the most telling images came after the launch, when photographers visited the launch pad and reported it was in good condition.
During SpaceX’s first launch test on April 20, the Super Heavy booster created a massive crater under the pad that required extensive repairs. For the second flight, SpaceX installed a flood system and protective metal plate to protect the pad.
“After this morning’s Starship launch, the area on the Starbase looks to be in good shape!” wrote photographer John Kraus on X. “The road to the beach is open.”
Here are a few more pad images from the photographers.
The audience watching Starship’s second test flight included people who had previously flown in space as well as being launched on SpaceX rockets.
Sian Proctor, who launched the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule into orbit in September 2021 on the private Inspiration4 mission funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, congratulated the entire SpaceX team on the launch.
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“Congratulations to all the people at SpaceX for continuing to make history in humanity’s advancement to the Moon, Mars and beyond!!” supervisor wrote to x.
SpaceX engineers now have the task of understanding why the Starship vehicle used its flight termination system to detonate itself just before completing launch ignition. The company said it would also study Super Heavy’s explosion so future versions of the vehicle could be returned to Earth for reuse as it and Starship envision.
“Honestly, it was an incredibly successful day even though we had a quick and unplanned dismantling of both the Super Heavy booster and the Ship,” SpaceX quality engineering manager Kate Tice said during the live webcast. “This is great. We have a lot of data and it will all help us improve on our next flight.”
NASA has chosen SpaceX’s Starship to land astronauts on the moon for the Artemis 3 mission, which the agency hopes to launch by 2025 or 2026. Meanwhile, SpaceX has sold trips around the moon on Starship to commercial customers such as Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. and hopes to use the vehicle for deep space flights to Mars and other solar system destinations.