Watch SpaceX’s amazing slo-mo footage of Starship launch

By Trevor Mogg Published November 21, 2023

SpaceX is continuing to share remarkable imagery from the second integrated test flight of its powerful Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft, collectively known as the Starship.

The latest footage (below) shows a slow-motion close-up of the Super Heavy’s 33 Raptor engines as the rocket blasted away from the launchpad at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on Saturday. Be sure to turn on the audio for the full effect.

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Slow motion tracking shot of Super Heavy's 33 Raptor engines shortly after liftoff pic.twitter.com/tzx0ToGGu4

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 21, 2023

Creating a colossal 17 million pounds of thrust at launch, the Starship is the most powerful rocket ever to have flown, exceeding the thrust of NASA’s Saturn V moon rocket and its new Space Launch System rocket by around a factor of two.

Unlike April’s test flight, this time the spacecraft successfully separated from the Super Heavy booster. But about three-and-a-half minutes after launch, the booster exploded, while the Starship continued to fly for about another four-and-a-half minutes before suffering the same fate.

Still, SpaceX engineers were pleased that the mission surpassed April’s effort and will now use the gathered data to refine the design and flights systems before they make another attempt.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said this week that Starship would be ready to fly again in December, though much depends on the outcome of an investigation into Saturday’s flight that is being carried out by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

SpaceX needs a launch permit from the FAA in order to send the Starship skyward for a third time.

NASA is watching the test flights with great interest as it’s interested in using the reusable flight system for crewed missions to the moon, Mars, and other faraway celestial bodies.

The agency has already inked a deal with SpaceX to use a modified version of the Starship spacecraft to transport two astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon’s surface in the highly anticipated Artemis III mission, which is currently scheduled for 2025.

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Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Space

Cool time-lapse shows SpaceX Crew-10 arriving at space station

SpaceX's Crew-10 arriving at the ISS in March 2025.

Space station astronaut Don Pettit has shared a cool time-lapse of SpaceX’s Crew-10 Crew Dragon spacecraft arriving at the orbital facility on Sunday.

The footage, which runs more quickly than the actual speed, shows the capsule approaching the docking port on the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits at around 250 miles above Earth. Pettit posted a short and long version of the spacecraft's autonomous approach:

Space

SpaceX will launch Tesla’s humanoid Optimus robot to Mars next year

Optimus Gen 2 humanoid robot by Tesla.

The year 2025 is going to be pivotal for Tesla’s humanoid robot plans, if the words of CEO Elon Musk are to be believed. But next year could mark an astronomical milestone for the company’s Optimus robot, in quite the literal sense.
Taking to X, Musk mentioned in a post that SpaceX will put an Optimus robot on Mars atop its flagship Starship rocket by the end of 2026. Just over a week ago, the Starship broke apart following a launch test, the second such failure this year.
“Starship departs for Mars at the end of next year, carrying Optimus,” Musk wrote in a post on X. “If those landings go well, then human landings may start as soon as 2029, although 2031 is more likely.”
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1859078074303713447

This won’t be the first time Musk is making such a claim. Back in November last year, Musk mentioned that SpaceX was capable of sending “several uncrewed Starships” to the red planet within a couple of years and that the payload would include Optimus robots.
Tesla introduced a refined version of the Optimus robot at a glitzy event late in 2024. At the event, Musk told the crowd that Optimus was “the biggest product ever of any kind.” It was later reported that the robots were remotely operated by humans at the event.
Later, during the company’s Q4 2024 earnings calls, Musk shed more light on production plans, adding that the product has a revenue potential higher than $10 trillion. He also mentioned plans to manufacture thousands of humanoid robots in 2025.

Space

Watch SpaceX launch a relief crew for ‘stuck’ Starliner astronauts

At 7:03 p.m. EDT, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft, carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, March 14, 2025..

Four astronauts are on their way to the International Space Station (ISS). After several delays, the members of Crew-10 lifted off in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft using a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:03 p.m. ET on Saturday night. The crew includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

“Congratulations to our NASA and SpaceX teams on the 10th crew rotation mission under our commercial crew partnership. This milestone demonstrates NASA’s continued commitment to advancing American leadership in space and driving growth in our national space economy,” said NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro. “Through these missions, we are laying the foundation for future exploration, from low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars. Our international crew will contribute to innovative science research and technology development, delivering benefits to all humanity.”

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