SpaceX conducted a test flight of its Starship prototype; liftoff was delayed a day due to an engine cutoff at one second prior to launch during its first attempt.
The launch was designed to test several critical components and manuevers that would be part of Starships profile when it is used to transport people to Mars and elsewhere; Starship is being designed as the first fully reusable, two-stage, super heavy-lift spaceship; its final design calls for a height of 160 feet, a diameter of 30 feet and a payload in excess of 100 tons.
Starship will be mounted atop the Super Heavy booster for long duration and planetary missions. The Super Heavy booster will house 28 of the newly developed Raptor engines (most powerful rocket engine ever developed), while Starship will have 6. (Very reminiscent of von Braun’s early designs, though he packed in more engines owing to lower thrust.)
The first video is relatively short and focuses in on the launch and spectacular crash landing (all test objectives were met, despite the crash),
While the second video is from NasaSpaceFlight.com, a homegrown group that has been enthusiastically covering SpaceX launches for a while now.
The sites’s Managing Editor – Chris Bergin – can be heard saying “that was Amazing” at the 10:45:47 mark of their coverage (much longer and much more suited to geeky audiences).
