Footage showcasing the dramatic aftermath of SpaceX's Starship rocket launch earlier this week has surfaced online.
The video was captured by Louis Balderas of LabPadre.com. Balderas has been following the progress of Elon Musk's SpaceX operation and its research and development (R&D) facility in South Texas since March 2019.
"We have been anticipating this historic launch of the largest, most powerful rocket in the world," Balderas told Newsweek. "Our hopes were to capture the raw power of this beast. And that we did!"
At present, Balderas operates a network of nine cameras located across multiple properties in the area that has been set up to monitor and document the work of SpaceX, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
This base of operations gave him a front-row seat for Thursday's launch of an unmanned Starship, which was SpaceX's first attempt to launch a ship equipped with the Super Heavy booster required to reach orbit.
Though the Starship succeeded in clearing its launch tower, a few minutes into its flight it began to spin and did not separate properly. Soon after, it erupted in a ball of fire and smoke.
The video posted online by LadPadre documents the trail of destruction caused by the initial launch. In the video captured by one of Balderas's cameras, thick smoke can be seen engulfing the area around the launch site.
Debris can be seen flying off in all directions, resulting in significant damage to a nearby van. Balderas's own equipment, meanwhile, takes a bashing with the deafening sound of the rocket launching audible throughout the clip.
Several other pieces of camera equipment seen in the video are blown over with the footage showcasing the obvious power of the SpaceX launch. For around 90 seconds, smoke and dust fill the frame, pushing everything back, before finally, the sky reappears again.
Reflecting on the trail of destruction left behind, Balderas says he fully expected there to be some damage.
"Being set up so close to the launch pad we did know that there was a very real possibility that we could lose our equipment and vehicle," he said. "We do not know the extent of the damage yet but I am sure we at least lost windows."
Musk had predicted that an explosion was likely given that this was SpaceX's first attempt at a launch while using the Super Heavy booster. That sentiment was largely shared by Balderas, who has a better understanding than most of the progress being made.
"I believe the launch went as expected," Balderas said. "This is R&D and I'm sure even SpaceX knew it would not be a complete success on the first try. Being that it cleared the pad and continued through MAX-Q (beyond the speed of sound) is a success within itself. This shows that the vehicle is sound in its overall design."
Balderas did, however, say that there had been some "significant stepbacks" with regard to the launch pad and launch mount.
"There was a huge 20-foot deep crater left underneath the launch mount," he said. "I'm sure there will be some new designs coming out to keep the 33 raptor engines from annihilating the concrete foundation. There was also some damage to the fuel farm which I'm sure will need to be repaired and possibly redesigned."
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Jack Beresford is a Newsweek Senior Internet Culture & Trends Reporter, based in London, UK. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
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