This close-up video of SpaceX’s Starship Booster being caught by a tower will melt your puny Earthlings’ brains

Thunderous start

SpaceX’s fifth Starship orbital flight test was a resounding and surprising success.

Now, courtesy of new images released by the aerospace company, we can witness the launch of the world’s most powerful rocket up close, where its size and thunderous power are enough to overwhelm you, even through a computer screen.

The launch took place Sunday morning from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

As seen in a video taken from the launch tower, the rocket’s lower stage, the Super Heavy Booster, fires all 33 Raptor engines, generating an impressive 16.7 million pounds of thrust that unleashes a raging inferno below. Then, slowly, the entire rocket – all 398 feet of it – begins to rise into the air.

As imposing as Starship is, from the camera’s perspective it almost feels like we’re passing a skyscraper as it soars into the sky, half-encased in a fluffy shell of water vapor. The last thing we see is the Sun-like image of the Raptor engines, shooting flames into the lenses.

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Perfect Capture

This is an impressive spectacle in itself. But what really stole the show that day was the ambitious and unorthodox landing of the Super Heavy booster.

Both stages performed admirably. The upper stage, which consists of the Starship vehicle, separated three minutes and forty seconds after liftoff and then used its six Raptor engines to propel itself into space, reaching an altitude of about 145 kilometers, according to The Guardian. He would later return with a more or less conventional crash into the Gulf of Mexico, sustaining considerably less damage during the descent than in the last run, but he exploded after all was said and done.

Meanwhile, the post-separation Super Heavy booster immediately reversed course back to its Starbase launch pad, where “Mechazilla”, the launch tower, was waiting to “catch” it. The thruster activated 13 engines in a braking burst for most of the descent. As he approached the tower, he chose to use just three engines for greater control.

In an impressive technical achievement, the 233-foot-tall Super Heavy guides itself by the “chopstick” arms of the launch tower, slowing to hover with astonishing precision in the middle of the closing mechanical claw. And voilà: with the rocket’s metal protrusions securely attached to Mechazilla, SpaceX has achieved the nearly impossible.

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Building on Success

The Super Heavy’s landing feat is a major stepping stone for SpaceX’s plans to operate Starship as a reusable rocket — and it couldn’t have gone better. There’s no doubt the rocket has come a long way since exploding during its first two orbital flight tests.

What SpaceX plans to do next is unclear. The Federal Aviation Administration has already approved Starship’s upcoming sixth flight, which has not been easy in the past. But if SpaceX changes its plan for the next test, it may need to reapply for approval.

Regardless, this is the most encouraging progress SpaceX has made with the rocket yet — a reassuring step toward it eventually becoming the vehicle that takes NASA astronauts to the surface of the Moon.

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