Boom! SpaceX Starship successfully re-enters atmosphere, splashes down and explodes
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00:00We're still moving really fast and the atmosphere is just dense enough that we're feeling the most pressure but hopefully we're going to start feeling a little bit less heat now.
00:14Looks like we got more views of each of the flaps on the ship as it's making its way back down to Earth.
00:21And we did pass through peak heating and still got really good views throughout that whole period.
00:31Typically during the highest heat on the vehicle we tend to build up a lot of plasma and that's typically when we would lose connection or views of the vehicle.
00:44But again with Starlink we were able to get some live views throughout that entire process there.
00:52And we're coming up, we'll start hearing a couple more milestones in about four minutes or so when we start getting down to the transonic, the subsonic when we're starting to move closer to and beneath the speed of sound.
01:08And I mean we're getting live views, we're getting live data, we've got a couple additional tests on this one today where we left off some missing tiles again to test some additional backup layers.
01:23We also have, I don't know if we can still quite see them in this view but you may have noticed we had some kind of silvery looking tiles on Starship as well.
01:34And those were pretty much standard tiles but they were wrapped in aluminum.
01:40And it was a pretty simplistic, straightforward one where aluminum starts to melt at roughly the same temperature where steel starts to lose its strength, not necessarily melt.
01:54And so if we see stuff melting we know what our steel is going to be exposed to.
02:03But yeah, 59 minutes since launch, should be coming up on transonic and everything in just about three minutes.
02:11Now the views here, we have coverage of all four flaps.
02:16We can see, so for those that perhaps didn't catch a glimpse of the vehicle before liftoff, there are two flaps at the forward end and two flaps at the aft end.
02:28The larger camera view that is there on the right hand side of your screen, that is a view of one of the aft end or the bottom end flaps.
02:37We can start to see some heat buildup and peeking through on one of the flaps there in the top left hand corner of your screen.
02:53Once again, Starship now at T plus one hour and nine seconds into its flight today, reentering the Earth's atmosphere.
03:03Currently about 45 kilometers above the surface of the Earth, now 44.
03:09We are targeting a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean about, you know, northwest-ish of Australia.
03:19And we are attempting to, as we did on flight four, perform a flip maneuver as well as a...
03:26Starship is at maximum entry dynamic pressure, remains on a good trajectory.
03:30All right, so that is great news there.
03:33Like Dan said earlier, this is basically Max Q part two.
03:38So this is the greatest amount of aerodynamic loads that the vehicle will experience during its flight.
03:45It's coming back through the Earth's atmosphere.
03:48You know, it was above the Earth's atmosphere in space where there was no friction.
03:52We can obviously see heat as evidence of that friction buildup.
03:57The atmosphere is actually helping to slow the vehicle down.
04:00If you're watching the telemetry in the bottom right hand side, right hand corner of your screen,
04:04you can see that speed decelerating rapidly.
04:08Now, the four flaps on the ship help steer the vehicle.
04:12And one of the main objectives for the ship today is to demonstrate controlled reentry during this phase of flight,
04:20this reentry phase.
04:22Now, the four flaps on the ship help steer the vehicle.
04:25And one of the main objectives for the ship today is to demonstrate controlled reentry during this phase of flight,
04:33this reentry phase.
04:37And we have six engines on ship, but we only need three of them, the three sea level engines.
04:44We will have that flip maneuver happen very close to touching down for splashdown.
04:50We'll do that flip maneuver, ignite those engines, slow the vehicle down immediately,
04:55and then hopefully have what we call a soft splashdown in the water.
05:03It's probably going to feel a little bit harder on the top of the surface of the water, but it'll look pretty gentle.
05:08Yeah, and like we said earlier, we hope to have some more views even of that phase of the flight.
05:13So fingers crossed that we can bring those to you.
05:18We are hoping to splashdown softer than we did last time on Flight 4.
05:24Right now, Starship continuing to make its descent back to planet Earth.
05:28Starship is at Mach 2, remains on a good trajectory.
05:31All right, great news there.
05:32That tells us that the vehicle is traveling twice the speed of sound.
05:39So we will then, the next callout that we'll hear is that it is traveling about the speed of sound.
05:45And then we will hear a callout that it is, that will be the callout that it is transonic.
05:49And then we will hear another callout saying that it is subsonic, meaning going slower than the speed of sound.
05:55Starship is transonic.
05:57There it is.
06:01So at this point in time, we say transonic because certain parts of the vehicle,
06:06like the flap that you see on your screen, might be experiencing airflow faster than the speed of sound.
06:15While other parts of the ship may be experiencing airflow.
06:19Starship is in the subsonic belly flop.
06:22All right, so now the entire vehicle is traveling slower than the speed of sound, so subsonic.
06:28The crowd here at Mission Control Hawthorne also getting excited just like us.
06:33We're awaiting a water landing.
06:36We are going to reignite the three engines to perform that flip maneuver.
06:40And we're basically about a minute and a half, wow, away from the landing flip.
06:47Yeah, the crowd's getting excited here as we get closer and closer to splashdown.
06:52Again, just about a minute away from the expected splashdown.
06:55So we should see a lot happening coming up here shortly.
07:00Currently having a view of one of the flaps.
07:03And it is a little bit dark on your screen.
07:05But hopefully we'll get some good views of the ship as it makes that flip maneuver and touchdown for splashdown.
07:12Yeah.
07:14Guys, we saw that speed drop like a rock.
07:17So we're basically we're doing a belly flip right now or a belly flop right now.
07:21That's what's kind of if you saw the high altitude campaign, that's the unique thing about how Starship comes back.
07:28So we've bled off pretty much all of the speed we're going to.
07:32We're essentially at terminal velocity.
07:34Starship is at five kilometers altitude and remains on target.
07:39Five to go, coming up soon, landing burn.
07:54Two kilometers away.
07:57Starship is on target, approaching landing burn startup.
08:02So keep an eye on the bottom right hand side of your screen as well.
08:06That will be the indicator when the Raptor engines ignite.
08:10If we are unable to see that illumination ourselves.
08:14Landing burn startup.
08:22Incredible view of the reflection of that landing burn.
08:27You can see the water just behind the ship.
08:40An incredible view.
08:42I think it is safe to say we have a ship in the water.
08:47Touchdown.
08:49What an incredible end to Starship's journey.
08:58A live view from a buoy that we had out at the landing zone.
09:04An incredible view of the ship landing just about on target as they were calling out.
09:14That was amazing.
09:17We were not intending to recover any of the ship's hardware, so that was the best ending that we could have hoped for.
09:33Man, I don't think we're going to be able to get a ton of extra video of the heat shield, but we hit the target.
09:43We hit the target.
09:46You know we hit the target because we had these buoys placed in a pretty specific spot.
09:54Wow.
09:56What a day.
09:58That's what I get to say.
10:00What a day.
10:04Everything started off today with that launch.
10:09We were able to lift off towards the end of our window, 725 a.m. central time.
10:1533 out of 33 rafters on the way uphill.
10:19Successful hot stage.
10:21Booster came back.
10:23We watched it come down right behind us.
10:25Watched it get caught.
10:27And that broke my brain for a while.
10:31I'm really happy we had coast for a bit.
10:33That's first ever booster catch.
10:35Major step in the way to rapid reusability.
10:38And ship just gave us one heck of a show, making it through a controlled reentry this time.
10:44Flaps intact.
10:45Made it down to the water.
10:47Hey, starships were meant to fly, and it sure as hell flew today.