The liftoff of SpaceX's Starship IFT-2 rocket in a spectacular 360º video

@ElentirENG ES 11·21·2023 · 23:23 0

On November 18, the launch of the second integrated flight test (IFT-2) of the SpaceX Starship rocket took place.

The SpaceX's solution for the Starship rocket launch pad and its risks
This is the ingenious separation system and other curiosities of the Starship of SpaceX

The SpaceX Starship launch vehicle is the largest rocket in the history of the space race, with a height of 121 meters. The forecast was for this flight to last 90 minutes. The Starship spacecraft successfully separated from the Super Heavy booster module after 2 minutes and 48 seconds of flight and at an altitude of 74 km. However, the booster module exploded 3 minutes and 21 seconds into the flight (both parts of the rocket are designed to be reusable). The Starship continued flying until 8 minutes and 6 seconds after launch, when it was finally lost.

The launch was made from the SpaceX Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, at 13:02:50 UTC. You can see here the full video of the launch issued by SpaceX via Twitter:

Here you can see a video of the liftoff moment:

Today SpaceX has released a spectacular 360º video of this launch, with 4K quality:

You can see some screenshots of this video here. Here we see the ignition of the flame deflectors of the launch pad, which launch 1.3 million liters of water with nitrogen at high pressure, for 40 seconds, to reduce noise and the expulsion of material.

The moment of ignition of the Raptor engines. The Falcon Heavy propulsion module is equipped with 33 engines of this type.

The moment in which the rocket begins to ascend, with its Raptor engines at full power. The cloud we see around the launch pad is formed by the mixture of the jet from the engines with the water thrown by the flame deflectors.

The Starship spacecraft, atop the rocket, during launch. A spectacular image.