Thread by @Erdayastronaut

This is not a render. This is not a simulation. This is @SpaceX’s first integrated test flight of #Starship with the Super Heavy booster, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket to ever fly. This #slomo is from our 8k tracker shot by @considercosmos.

It’s massive, 120 m [394 feet] tall and 9 m [30 feet] wide and has over twice as much thrust as the Saturn V that took humans to the moon. The booster has 33 "Raptor 2" engines, which utilize the ultimate in power cycles, the full flow staged combustion cycle.

This test flight was uncrewed and was highly experimental. SpaceX was hoping to validate as many systems in flight as possible and the rocket made it much further in flight than most thought it would.

Although it was intentionally terminated 4 minutes in flight after reaching a peak altitude of 39 km [128,000 feet], it was considered quite a successful demonstration and provided valuable data for the next launches.

This is the rocket that will [eventually] take me to the moon with @dearmoonproject. We will need to see dozens of successful launches and a much more mature rocket before any humans are onboard, of course.

But this is major progress, the iterative process might not always be pretty, but in the long run it will make for the most robust, most capable, and eventually a fully and rapidly reusable launch vehicle.

And again, huge congrats to @SpaceX / @elonmusk for making serious progress and putting on an incredible show! Can't wait for the next one!

PS: The song used in this video is my newest song called "CRYO" find it anywhere you stream like Apple Music / Spotify. Here's the Spotify link for those interested in weird mathy 5 over 4 breakdowns 😉 spotify.link/bPZrASYIbzb