SpaceX Lunar Starship Full Flight Animation

Produced with @smvllstvrs - / smallstars
SFX and Mixing @Jettisonedguy - / @superheavysurround
Lunar Gateway Exterior by @brickmack
Music - ”The Fallen Ones”, Jeremiah Pena

[@smallstars]

For people asking why the booster lands on its feet, Elon only revealed that SpaceX was looking at catching superheavy boosters upon seeing the booster landing sequence in this video! We decided not to change it last minute.

[@MarynJohnForever]

If you guys rocked anymore, you'd start rolling.

[@adamsmith5151]

He said they were going to catch it over a week ago...

[@camerondeatcher9668]

@@adamsmith5151 Animation takes time y'know.

[@gohtashiraishi9157]

Very understandable! The starship development program is so hard to keep up with! You guys are doing a phenomenal job and thanks for letting us all dream!

[@palfers1]

Well phooey to you then

[@nathancommissariat3518]

The sounds of the orbital refueling docking were absolutely stunning. Love it so much!

[@ErcXSpace]

SuperHeavy Surround is to thank for that!😄

[@artoruvidal2793]

😏😏😏😏

[@stephencorella423]

There is no sound in the space..

[@artoruvidal2793]

@@stephencorella423 Actually it's possible to hear sound in space just not in the same way on earth There's few tricks for that

[@nathancommissariat3518]

@@stephencorella423 Can there be no fun in animations? And also anyone within one of the vehicle’s seperate groups would potentially feel and hear the vibrations which would propagate through the entire vehicle.

[@cretium805]

1:59 This scene is cool as hell

[@HypersonicWyvern]

2001 vibes

[@StarshipFairing]

Oh my god it's finally happening! Everybody stay calm

[@adrianthe402nd]

I AM SO HYPED BRO!!!!!

[@takismail]

@@adrianthe402nd wish to live long to see it landing On the Moon after on Mars.

[@hamburgerhamburger4064]

It didn’t actually happen, it’s just a very good animation.

[@Kwint.]

This is the future. And i cant wait. Epic animation!

[@THUNDERSHOCKR]

To all the people saying the Lunar Starship doesn’t need the sea level engines, it does. They are needed for gimbal control and they can be seen in the official SpaceX render

[@MDP1702]

I doubt they'd use sea level engines for gimballing, more likely another vacuum engine would be used in the center for that. And that spaceX has it on their render doesn't really matter, starship pictures from spaceX have changed several times over time, this would likely be one of those changes. There is no reason to put sea level optimized engines on a ship that won't leave vacuum again.

[@tae5216]

​@@MDP1702 This is my opinion, but firstly there is barely any space to fit another RVac. Secondly, if look at SpaceX's official animation for Starship, the second stage uses SL Raptors right after stage separation. Why? I don't know. As for TVC, the Starship will probably use thrusters instead of SL raptors. They could use SL raptors to make sharp turns. So should it be there? Maybe.

[@MDP1702]

@@tae5216 A lunar starship doesn't need to be an exact replica, put a gimballing RVac in the middle of where the SL raptors normally are and it can also help with turning (though no real reason imo to use this to turn instead of maneuver thrusters) and if necessary make the engine bay wall a bit longer. I don't know how much we should actually trust the official animation, it might just be that the animators didn't know exactly which engines would work where. I honestly would be suprised to see SL raptors being used at such a height. Other second stage don't use SL engines either.

[@sebastiansaez4927]

Well of course they need them for landing

[@tae5216]

@@sebastiansaez4927 Not for lunar.

[@Ivan_Chesnokov]

Such a deep sound design! Goosebumps

[@gohtashiraishi9157]

Even if SpaceX doesn’t win the HLS contract NASA would need this to economically be able to send large cargo volumes to the moon. A permanent base isn’t possible without the cost effective, heavy lift capability of starship (or possible similar vehicles in the future)

[@WasatchWind]

I think it makes more sense for Alpaca to be used on early missions, but Lunar Starship will definitely be needed later.

[@gohtashiraishi9157]

@@WasatchWind you are right there. I do hope Dynetics wins out over the national team. Perhaps Lunar starship or some variation of it will come under a later contract to ferry cargo to the future moonbase?

[@smugnation2040]

@@WasatchWind I think Lunar Starship will actually be ready to go, as a cargo ship (possibly even a crew-rated version), before ALPACA or The National Team. So, it'll wind up being a matter of Congress/NASA deciding to wait/delay for the alternatives if they don't make use of what's already available. • this assumes Gateway itself is ready. --- SpaceX seems to be on pace to producing an operational Lunar Starship within the next two years.

[@MDP1702]

I wonder whether it wouldn't be more efficient to place the cargo in a container of some kind and transfer it in low earth orbit to a lunar lander with lower dry mass. Transfering cargo will have to be done eitherway if you want to reuse a lunar starship for lunar cargo missions. Like even taking just the walls above the fuel tanks off, would already reduce the weight quite a bit. Maybe even a lander that lands upside down might be interesting, the higher engine placement would keep it away from the soil (less problems with lunar dust if there is no landing pad) and it just drops off the container that way, no need to even land the lander itself (though might not matter much). And a competing heavy lander possibly could use hydrogen, making it easier to use on the moon. Anyway, it is far from certain that starship will be the most usefull lunar craft once large lunar cargo missions start, which will be 10-15 years out at best. Except for human travel, the full hull design of a lunar starship is likely to be a disadvantage, just like its fuel will be.

[@TJAllcot]

@@gohtashiraishi9157 put a modified Tanker Starship on the surface permanently with as much methane and oxygen as it can land and have Alpacas bounce back and forth between that to reload propellant and various interesting points.

[@vortifyne]

I love the sound design as well!

[@vortifyne]

Yes! Finally! Worth the wait! Amazing animation!

[@RandomPerson-zl6uz]

Go SpaceX!!! Nothing can stop them, not even the FAA

[@Kasmuller]

Sn9: ....

[@RandomPerson-zl6uz]

@@Kasmuller that was a prototype vehicle

[@Kasmuller]

@@RandomPerson-zl6uz what I am saying is the FAA stopped them from launching several times, so yes the FAA can stop them, rather easily actually. All they need to do is not approve the tfr

[@RandomPerson-zl6uz]

@@Kasmuller oh ok

[@20_percent]

Spacex-NASA this is the future

[@MrPhife333]

I love the "Next stop: Mars" ending.

[@georgeharrison6154]

INCREDIBLE!

[@ryanrising2237]

0:51 The callout for "fuel reserves depleted" doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me here. The booster still has fuel for landing, and the upper stage obviously has to continue to orbit. That being said, nice animation, and I appreciate the extra time it took to render it at 30fps rather than 24.

[@dennisleas8996]

I took that as just a nod to "The Martian"

[@gilbertponder5307]

I think it is a lead-in to the Earth orbit docking and refueling prior to the trans-Lunar segment of the flight...I think...otherwise I'm not sure what the docking in Earth orbit was for.

[@dennisleas8996]

@@gilbertponder5307 Sorry, I was probably being too obtuse. The audio ("Shutdown confirmed...Fuel reserves depleted") is lifted directly from the movie "The Martian." The quote doesn't make a lot of sense in the context of this animation. Therefore, I took it as a reference to our aspirations for Mars.

[@Byehk2047]

You got a new subscriber

[@pegefounder]

2:17 Cybertrucks on the moon, what better advertising could a car company do?

[@RestrictedHades]

Cyber trucks on mars

[@StingerNSW]

A true masterpiece of 3D Animation with SFX and Mixing by my Aussie Mate @JettisonedGuy (Gold), goosebumps ♥️ 🚀

[@smallstars]

🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

[@smallstars]

The sound design really makes it 👌🏼

[@superheavysurround]

Thank you so much Stinger.

[@superheavysurround]

@@smallstars A culmination of efforts involved in the production motivated the sound dude to pull his socks up ;)

[@framryk0]

Amazing job! Tweet that to @NASA for the SpaceX HLS entry, job done 🤩👍🚀

[@HighlandAerospace]

The docking with gateway was 👌

[@AstronomicalYT]

Should've been in theaters

[@affinix887]

Holy shit thats so good! The super heavy raptor start up is phenomenal

[@hehehehehehe7012]

Great animation but just have to point one small thing out, i can't see why the lunar starship would have sea level raptors. It likely wont be going back to earth (in one piece), and it's planned to spend it's life going from the surface of the moon to Gateway, which is all in a vacuum.

[@pastorfox]

^^this

[@NeoWish]

Well unless they are planning to make starship in one piece 😏

[@isaquest134]

they will because of the moon’s low gravity. they need to shut down a few raptors to get a twr that is low enough for the moon. since some raptors will be shut down, the thrust will be off center. they need sea level raptors to correct fpr that because the SL raptors can gimbal while the vacuum raptors cant.

[@RandomGamer-qy6ys]

They also maybe be bedded for titan and Europa once the moon missions are done they plan to manufacture nuclear fusion engines in space for this but it is just a theory

[@MDP1702]

@@isaquest134 It would make more sense to place an extra vacuum raptor in the middle which can gimbal, rather than wasting 3 sea level engines on a craft that will never see atmosphere again.

[@MatthewCable]

Outstanding work!!!

[@jacobreuter]

Awesome video dude!!

[@vulture4117]

Amazing

[@earthwormjj]

The cyber trucks are a nice touch!

[@yathavanmanokanthan7401]

Worth the wait!

[@Aerospace001]

I have been waiting for so long

[@DailyDoseofSpace.]

Just watching this video has shown me how much has changed and developed within half a year. For example they are doing body to body docking (from recent info) and catching the Booster

[@georgeharrison6154]

ITS HERE!!

[@arsharif2590]

U know ErcX u just got me excited with a stunning 2 minute animation. Great job!

[@vincentrusso4332]

Marcus House made me sub to your channel by promoting your work, great job team!

[@Patyx42]

I love your focus on sound in this video. Instant subscribe

[@samuellopes7851]

Your best animation!!!!👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@SPACE_3D]

Really good job on the rendering

[@BlueOriginSFS]

Incredible job erc! I'm thinking of getting blender do you have any advices to me and other starters?

[@ErcXSpace]

Do the Donut tutorial!😄

[@mr.prince8701]

Awesome work.

[@waynzignordics]

One of the booster's raptor engines didn't light during liftoff. Inner-circle, at 2 o'clock. Is that an Easter egg, or oversight?

[@brantuga9915]

I can't wait for this to actually happen

[@jesreeljohnmiole6399]

Who's here after SpaceX wins NASA contract?

[@mikoske]

Awesome!!

[@edgardorosso5991]

¡SOÑAR Y NADA MÁS, UN MUNDO DE ILUSIÓN!

[@toddbrewer683]

Wow...great job!!!

[@WasatchWind]

Fantastic animation.

[@jeffkrupke3810]

So cool I can't wait for it to be real.

[@laughing747]

Amazing!

[@MarynJohnForever]

Love!! Next orbital refuel, slow that roll, gotta enjoy that moment! Keep going guys

[@schabalabadingdong7805]

The quality of this video is way too good

[@gulan3351]

Awesome

[@johnnymatias3027]

Brilliant

[@cryptoico2647]

wow, amazing

[@jacekpiterow900]

Moon Starship does not need to have three central Raptors. It does not come back to earth.

[@TJAllcot]

I think it does need them to get to orbit. While 6 vacuum Raptors would be better efficiency wise, the loss by using regular raptors isn't big enough to redesign and also lose the engine bay cargo. Lunar Starship may also need at least one of the sea level Raptors for landing on the moon for their gimbal capability.

[@MDP1702]

@@TJAllcot Sea level engines are not necessary for launch I thought, the booster puts it high enough to immediately use vacuum engines. The main reason starship has 3 sea level engines is to land. And even if the sea level engines are still needed, it would make more sense to replace it with a gimballing vacuum raptor instead to provide a bit extra power. If necessary they could launch the lunar starship without cargo if necessary. Seeing how much redesign the lunar starship already will have, I see no reason why they wouldn't redesign that part too.

[@TJAllcot]

@@MDP1702 it's especially interesting that the SpaceX image of a Lunar Starship shows a single sea level Raptor and a single vacuum Raptor glowing as it's apparently landing. I would think a Lunar Starship could work without a gimbal Raptor at all, just throttle different 'belly rockets'.

[@MDP1702]

@@TJAllcot I honestly don't care much for images or renders at this moment. The starship from today is different to this from a year ago, let alone 2-3 years ago. It is very likely the lunar starship will undergo changes too once it actually goes into development. So I'd put more trust in logical thinking. 3 sl raptors for lunar starships is illogical.

[@TJAllcot]

@@MDP1702 I also suspect that once they get the system working, there will be a lot of changes they could make with relative ease. Elon once mentioned 'stretching the tanks' and I believe that the interior could. It is crazy how much the design changes so quickly and they keep going. Certainly helps that steel is 'cheap', especially compared to composites.

[@Aerospace001]

AMAZING 🤩

[@andreasleucht]

Love it

[@thomasroberts664]

Amazing, beautiful and everything inbetween Well down dude

[@graullas8981]

Damn that's impressive!

[@catdealer1144]

For what I know SpaceX will light all engines on Starship since the vacuum ones don't have gimbal

[@Byehk2047]

Ohhh wow I haven't seen lunar starship with solar panels deployed before!

[@astrophysc]

the solar panels are the dark blue tho

[@Lucas-ci7rm]

Great job Erik!

[@sadjp121]

Top

[@ACUEZIUM]

Well done

[@space_man6035]

U earned a sub

[@QuasiRandomViewer]

Excellent render of SuperHeavy engine ignition and of shadows cast at liftoff. Well done!

[@ErcXSpace]

Awesome that you noticed, some of these details take days to make!😄

[@QuasiRandomViewer]

@@ErcXSpace I can imagine. So many other videos show all the engines come on at one. Your staggered ignition added a great deal of character and realism.

[@Ifan-oq3nf]

This is awesome. I loved every second of it!

[@olliveiromcallister6517]

SpaceX Lunar Starship From Tomorrowland Full Flight Animation

[@thechanceogden]

I spot the smoke border at 0:26... Beutiful render though. :)

[@fumblepizza]

I don't think they will have sea level Raptors on it as they will only be used once and be waisted weight

[@isaquest134]

they will because of the moon’s low gravity. they need to shut down a few raptors to get a twr that is low enough for the moon. since some raptors will be shut down, the thrust will be off center. they need sea level raptors to correct fpr that because the SL raptors can gimbal while the vacuum raptors cant.

[@MDP1702]

@@isaquest134 They'd just put a gimballing vacuum raptor in the center instead of 3 sea raptors.

[@isaquest134]

@@MDP1702 well we don’t really know yet, but for now, sl raptors are still being used according to the official renders

[@MDP1702]

@@isaquest134 When was the latest render? Besides, in earlier renders the booster had landing legs, not anymore, the starship had legs as fins, not anymore. Design changes as they actually start development. I have almost no doubt that the lunar starship will not have 3 sl engines, it just doesn't make sense and would be a waste of engines.

[@isaquest134]

@@MDP1702 there hasn’t really been any new official renders, but the last official onee had sl rsptors if you look closely

[@robossbomb0000]

Yes

[@yespur87]

Amazing work

[@kathiaiglesias44]

Estoy contentoooo

[@burninskin]

Do we really need so many windows? Maybe leave them only on one of the levels at most? I guess they'll be less protective against radiation? Pretty cool animation!

[@pettyscientist2357]

Which software you use to make such amazing videos

[@harryithink5336]

This is more realistic than real life

[@Rauruatreides]

Except for a lot of the noises. There is no noise in space, so none would be heard. Then again its cooler with noises. I mean, imagine Star Wars fights with zero noise other than the voices of the characters!

[@EritoKaio]

Looks incredible!

[@ErcXSpace]

🙌

[@EllisRobles]

Amazing Job :D

[@dheerajg.6971]

First off, amazing render. But then, why does the lunar lander have sea level raptors? The fact that it has a hatch in the nose one is clearly saying that there are no header tanks. But why the sea level raptors then?

[@BlueOriginSFS]

SpaceX has this in there render,I'm assuming it would be for launch to rendezvous with gateway or orion

[@RobinClaassen]

@@BlueOriginSFS How would sea level engines on the upper stage be helpful for a launch to rendezvous with the Lunar Gateway or an Orion? I don't see how a lunar upper stage would ever fire its engines in-atmosphere.

[@BlueOriginSFS]

@@RobinClaassen The lunar starship is never going to reenter earth atmosphere however, the lunar starship can still have sea level engines for liftoff the moon, hopefully in the near future there would be Launchpad on the moon where you could launch from there using sea level raptors,since vacuum optimized is more powerful, raptor sea level are enough, we still dont know for sure this is all theorized, spacex jus thas them in there renders

[@RobinClaassen]

@@BlueOriginSFS Why would you use sea level engines to lift off of the lunar surface? Don't they just consume the same amount of fuel for less thrust in a vacuum environment? Does that equation change when the end of the engine nozzle is close to a surface that will reflect much of the exhaust back at it?

[@BlueOriginSFS]

@@RobinClaassen noone is sure yet, but in spacex renders we see regular starships on the moon using sea level raptors to launch back to earth and the lunar variant has sea level raptors in there render, guess we will have to wait to find out more

[@RayoAtra]

Lunar Cybertucks!

[@b1n4ryb1rd7]

TO THE MOON

[@leyong4716]

2.16 "What the Car.."

[@ooferine504]

The lack of comments talking about cybertruck moon rovers

[@LUIZ0798]

amazing these congratulations graphics looks very real

[@tmac20031]

The Cybertrucks😂

[@racingmhf9157]

*LANDING LEGS*

[@ajm2872]

OMG the Cybertruck rovers 😂 yes yes yes

[@lunkprab]

Awesome animation! But I dont understand on why moonship need to dock with Lunar Gateway, to bring more astronaut?

[@sRocketScience]

Maby it would look nicer if the bottom of the legs (of the seccond stage) had a areodynamic covers so they dont stick out as much. Awesome animation thanks for doing those things!

[@ry6243]

Hi, I love this video but I am also totally new to space exploration. The refuelling tank, that was already in place beforehand? So its two rocket launches? Also, what is the lunar gateway for? I seen a few other KZbin animation videos where the lander just land straight on the moon.

[@lolmom6839]

This videos are my drugs now

[@remartembile]

If starship is ready I think they can finish starlink launches so fast.

[@CausticLemons7]

Subscribed ;)

[@spacetimelapses3988]

Hey I am 3D_Daniel. ;) Your video looks awesome!! From where did you get the sound effects?😇

[@JonahFouts]

No Superheavy crane? 🥺

[@thomasiobst8174]

This is an excellent and awesome animation. I just wish you would have shown how it gets back off the moon. I can't seem to find any animations that show it taking off again.

[@kerbal8216]

These could be permanent lunar homes too

[@aryavsheth]

Oh. My. god. I am speechless. Finally. Working on my own raptor model right now. I want to try doing the same animation, but for me, 1 frame is about 20 min. So...

[@elikrop-siegmund1820]

this is pretty similar i would think. the animation still has booster landing legs so its been taking a whike

[@ErcXSpace]

Haha yup, since November

[@aryavsheth]

@@ErcXSpace Also, is the smoke a bit artificial?

[@aryavsheth]

@@ErcXSpace Cause it looked like clouds?

[@isaquest134]

@@aryavsheth he used blender’s built in smoke effect so that’s probably why

[@johnhopkins6260]

never saw Lunar crew leaving the moon.

[@estebanvega9153]

makes sense for a base or a space station, but as a means of descending to the moon a starship seems unnecessary to me

[@Trippy2549]

It can carry so much more payload

[@MDP1702]

@@Trippy2549 And it has so much extra dry weight. Just because there are no better large cargo landers at the moment, doesn't mean they will not come by the time they are needed (ptobably not before 10-15 years from now). And if they use lighter/smaller landers with same payload capacity (which should definitely be possible), lunar starship has a problem.

[@abhinav_mzn]

Where the Lunar Starship docks after refiling ?

[@coolchis47sfs64]

It docks to the deep space gateway, a lunar orbiting space station. 🛰

[@istiles1]

Cool video. 1 question: why does it have sea level Raptors when it'll never land on earth?

[@isaquest134]

they will because of the moon’s low gravity. they need to shut down a few raptors to get a twr that is low enough for the moon. since some raptors will be shut down, the thrust will be off center. they need sea level raptors to correct fpr that because the SL raptors can gimbal while the vacuum raptors cant.