SpaceX Starship Finally Takes Flight! What happened!?

Well, the day has finally come where this magnificent beast has taken to the skies! Yes, SpaceX Starship Finally Takes Flight! But what happened!? Was it a success? A failure? Something in between. Well, lets just dive right into this. After all the build-up to this colossal event it was time for it to fly on Thursday, the 20th of April 2023. That is a date for the history books right there.

Starship Stage Zero Board Game

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[IsMaski]

What happened was just a historical moment in time. It left me completely gobsmacked when that beast took to the skies! Unbelievable power of those engines. Incredible to witness it clearing Stage Zero. I can't wait for the next one. Beautiful RUD as well. Kudos to everyone at SpaceX for their hardwork. Absolute heroes

[WG-tthk]

I was there to witness it live and it was incredible! It was the first rocket launch for me to see live so why not make it the first launch of the world's largest rocket. I was 6 miles away on South Padre Island and the sound of StarshipHeavy actually shook the ground..It was awe inspiring to see a 400 ft tall rocket climb gracefully into the sky above South Texas. I believe what actually happened was that Starship was so excited at reaching MaxQ, that is started to do cartwheels. The fact that it went as far as it did on the first attempt of a radical new design is a testament to the SpaceX enginers. This is one of the highlights of my 75 yrs. I hope I will be able to come back down here to see the first RTLS launch of StarshipHeavy. To see the chopsticks catch the Heavy will really be incredible. I am typing this in my hotel room on SPI (Best Western Beachside Inn) the day after the launch. What made it so special was the day before you could drive to Starbase and stand across the street from the world's largest rocket that was 500 ft away from you . I really feel lucky to be alive at this time. I was surrounded by thousands of SpaceX fans. The SpaceX community are the friendliest folks in the world.

[SteveB]

Before it launched I had my doubts about how strong the whole thing would be when it came to winds etc during max q, but boy, you are right, that thing is incredibly strong. If it can survive those crazy moves, it can survive pretty much anything.

[adamh]

that giant rocket doing flips is the most Kerbal thing Ive ever seen outside of the game. AMAZING

[holographic_red]

This flight was so damn amazing, my heart was racing. Really felt like a big moment in time.

[StingerNSW]

Watching the launch in person was a mega dream come true, words can not describe what I witnessed nor can I every forget experiencing a full stack Launch with thousands of people on SPI. Well done to all the hardworking SpaceX employees who are advancing humanity forward. Thanks Marcus for the recap, great to watch on my return Down Under 🇦🇺

[cualtiochi]

I experienced the event live and I can say that I haven't felt so many emotions since the birth of my little girl...I hope that at least she will witness the first step of a human on Mars! All the best from Romania...go go go Starship! 🙏👏🚀🇷🇴

[thoughtsonfitness]

Having witnessed those incredible days of the moon shots, seeing a fully stacked star ship, left my 60 year old body quivering like a jelly, just like it did back in ‘69 when I was just 6 years old! Hearing those engineers and seeing star ship rise above that tower was truly awesome. For me, the next stage of space travel as finally arrived. Marcus, I avoided all the mainstream noise and waited patiently for your assessment. You have so much passion. Why would I go anywhere else ?

[thedarkside]

The fact that it didn't break apart while tumbling is huge achievement.

Imagine when we first hear: "The Starship has landed on Mars."🙂

[Private-GtngxNMBKvYzXyPq]

It was apparent that even at high speeds the rotating stack held together. That’s impressive.

[DoomMajster]

Great job! That crater though... Seems massive! Congrats to SpaceX! 🎉❤

[carlbrown]

Congratulations you are the only one so far that made it through without calling it an explosion. It's good to see you know the difference between self-destruct and explosion.!!🥰

[draco_]

The fact that this rocked held it together on that spin dance for so long 🤯

[Mark-hbzf]

The amount of data streamed from the ship during the 4 minutes has to be immense and invaluable for flight #2. The engineers are probably like 'kids in a candy store', pouring over the data.

Thanks for the review Marcus, been waiting for it since the flight!

[sjay]

This overview news of the launch is far better, and more factually accurate, than anything MSM has put out there.

Keep up the great content, Marcus!👍

[JoshuaThomas_joshobean]

Thanks Marcus, love this out-of-band video and summary. Masterfully done as always! I can't wait to see what the upcoming months unfold. Hopefully it includes getting a good launch pad finalized. Wow on all that concrete dispersion!

[jacobfarkas]

I didn't think about the force on the vehicle when it was flipping at 1500kph until you mentioned it. That's crazy impressive that it could survive so much time with all that force on the sides of it. The explosion at the end was also impressive. It looked very contained and hardly any large debris. Thanks for the video!

[robertgehrig]

Flame trench seems necessary with a water deluge system, but trying it without one gave a lot of data I’m sure. It was glorious to watch. Can’t wait for the next attempt.

[iamaduckquack]

4:23, 6:03 I'm absolutely in love with how the engines look using Methalox, same as Terran One. So clear, so bright.

Also, there just has to be a flame diverter of some kind as they need to redirect all that power and exhaust somewhere, it was always stupid not using one. At least they wont have HPU issues ever again, they were always being tinkered with and must have beeb very complex, too complex for this rocket it seems. Onwards and upwards!

[CommNotes]

I wonder if they have plans to make the launch pad reusable, as it also had it's first major flight test yesterday. It scattered commemorative pieces of pad concrete free of charge for collectors to take with them when they cam to pick up what was left of their vehicles and cameras nearby.