Car gets hit by debris and engulfed in smoke during SpaceX launch

Debris coming from SpaceX Starship’s launch in south Texas damaged a car on Thursday, April 20.

Footage posted to Twitter by @LabPadre shows a vehicle being engulfed in a cloud of debris and suffering damage immediately after the launch.

According to SpaceX, the giant new rocket exploded minutes after blasting off from its launchpad on Thursday morning and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.

Elon Musk’s company was aiming to send the nearly 400-foot (120-meter) Starship rocket on a round-the-world trip from the southern tip of Texas, near the Mexican border. It carried no people or satellites.

The flight plan had called for the booster to peel away from the spacecraft minutes after liftoff, but that didn’t happen. The rocket began to tumble and then exploded four minutes into the flight, plummeting into the gulf.

The Sun newspaper brings you the latest breaking news videos and explainers from the UK and around the world

Become a Sun Subscriber and hit the bell to be the first to know

#space #spacex #spacetravel

[aco]

I have no doubt Starship received critical damage during lift off.

[shredzarmy]

This car was purposely park at the no go zone to see the impact! Fixed your headline

[dustman]

That was insane. Like a small nuke went of. The velocity of all those rocks was crazy.

[BabaMakhanya]

It's crazy how far this camera was but still the smoke reached it.

[WarDaddy]

The Starship is now the world first most expensive excavator

[Syritis]

RIP @nasaspaceflight van, your service to the space enthusiasts will not be forgotten

[Rador]

That car is owned by NasaSpaceFlight, they parked it there on purpose to get footage of the booster, they knew of the potential danger so its all fine

[rileyuktv]

Proves that the cameraman always survives 😊

[jeffreyrowerealestate]

I think no humans allowed within 4 miles of the pad. No one is in that car. It's parked with cameras mounted.

[quietwarf]

I believe that was nasaspaceflight youtube channels car. Spacex said you can keep it parked there at its own peril. Which in its self is awesome. Freeking love spacex.

[Byehk]

Imagine that guy going to the repairs and they ask what happened to your car and he say "Got damaged cuz I parked too close to an orbital rocket" 😂

[GrouchyHaggis]

Pretty sure that's the folks over @NASASpaceflight camera van.

[dummyjoe]

First off not Car. The **Cars** are parked there as a “tripod” for 24/7 live cam views so people can watch what’s happening at Starbase.

[GrfMchn]

Ohhhh no. Not the poor unmanned cars that we're purposely parked in the blast zone for close up shots for the livestream. RIP, empty cars.

[bpg]

Did you see pictures of the hole the engines dug beneath the launch pad? This video shows where a lot of that concrete and dirt coming from that hole went 😅

Im sure they will consider installing blast deflectors when they rebuild the launch pad so they don't get a repeat of this.

[ericsanzzz]

Fix your headline....you're making it seem like some random people's cars were damaged....🙄

[joetuktyyuktuk]

There are some neighborhoods you just don't leave your car unattended...

[simonac.]

cant wait for the " electric version " 😂

[jackrosado]

It's headlines like these that make people hate news outlets

[zenithproject]

Should have parked a little closer and mayhem guy do a commercial inside the car 😂😂