See SpaceX Starship's full Earth re-entry, splashdown and explosive ending

SpaceX launched Starship for 5th time on Oct. 13, 2024 from Starbase in south Texas. Watch the spaceship re-entery Earth's atmosphere, splashdown in the Indian Ocean and then explode.
The Super Heavy booster was caught by the launch tower's 'chopsticks' shortly after separation from Starship. Full Story: www.space.com/...
Credit: SpaceX

[@scottjohnston1028]

At T+01:05:43 it sure looks to me like the starship has submerged up to at least the camera mount as the video hue turns ocean green. Then, shortly after, it turns black again and then after that the explosion occurs. Essentially, the starship sinks into the water up to at least the camera mount on the top fin and then bobs back up and then explodes. Had this landed on a drone ship, it very likely would still have been standing. The explosion was either from the thermal shock of a superheated starship in the water causing a crack or potentially this was intentional. With the starship being a few hundred feel long and submerged potentially 100 to 150 feet into the ocean, the 3 to 5 times atmospheric pressure may have been enough to damage the superheated hull.

[@weatherx25]

Yeah, and if you look at the speed, you can see that it stops decreasing at some point around 55 km/h, likely indicating the engines stopped for a moment. That might explain why it submerged so much.

[@sebrassino]

No, the starship was definitely not totally submerged. If you look good you see that the engines are stil firing under the water line. That's what's giving the green color. Then it tips and then we loose coverage.

[@i_amsarkar]

It touched down then merged then blast

[@DEViLDUB07]

LETS GO ELON!!!!!!!!!!! LETS GO SPACEX!!!!!!!

[@rtea7]

The cool thing is that when Starship Heavy lands on the Moon, no friction involved upon landing. On Mars with the thin atmosphere and about 38% of Earth's gravity, vertical landings should hopefully be very successful.

[@njengakim]

The good thing with the lower gravity of mars and the moon is that they can use landing legs that will not need to be as heavy as they would be if it was landing on earth.

[@tro4404]

What about the debris that will be created by the rocket engines. That debris will create a cloud of debris around the Moon impacting satellites. The engines are also very likely to create their own crater by the material blown out by the force of the rockets. Unless of course, Space X is somehow able to build a refractory concrete landing pad before the rocket gets there. How does that work?

[@aaronmccombs4966]

​@@tro4404don't worry abput those things...they will just re-use the Nevada desert fake moon landing shooting locations, used in 1969 by NASA Motion Picture Studios.

[@rtea7]

@@tro4404 It will be interesting to see how that will unfold.

[@JLVDRUM]

Congratulations SpaceX Team.

[@OhShiitakeMushrooms]

Watched it live yesterday. Hopefully now this gives the FAA more confidence with SpaceX where they will stop playing games and approve these flights much sooner. 2026 is fast approaching.

[@The_Ninja_Chin]

I heard SpaceX is planning to get permission to have 25 launches yearly.

[@hobog]

Playing games? Sounds like you'd rather the 737 MAX never had been grounded

[@philippbalz1863]

Die FAA hat ein Problem sie ist nicht auf solch viele Starts vorbereitet wie space X Raketen produziert die müssen plötzlich arbeiten für das Geld das sie bekommen 🤣🤣🤣

[@flipz8632]

​@@hobognah dude they are playing games and trying to slow them down because theyre being lobbied by other companies,also california is getting sued by elon because theyre trying to hault spaceX's development becayse they dont agree with his political allegience

[@xaviersavedra711]

Flight 6 is already approved

[@فارسليبورد-ك8و]

وكأنني أرى فلم خيال علمي ❤❤❤❤❤

[@mickeykelly7421]

Great job SpaceX !!!!

[@Crag19]

wow what a view!

[@peppi0304]

Flap was cooking again. thought they fixed it by moving it further lee wards? Will this just happen on a further iteration or was it just not enough?

[@The_Ninja_Chin]

I think you're confusing this starship with the block 2 version which hasn't launched yet, that one has its flaps repositioned. Besides it not being block2 version it held up really well compared to the 4rth launch.

[@njengakim]

Not yet this is still the old design. However it fared much better than the last flight which shows their modifications worked to an extent. The burn through of the flaps was very minimal as compared to the previous flight where it devoured half the flap.

[@Looxnury]

This looks coooll

[@rachaelvann379]

This is awesome

[@williamfarber6650]

How come NASA can’t produce this quality of CGI?

[@GGhost-q9w]

because NASA is asan.

[@bennielsen1403]

Has anyone noticed the U.A.P at the beginning (she mentions starlink) that has a curved hypersonic flight path? What is that dot that flies across the screen below starship?

[@Chris11249]

I saw that too. Looks to me like it's just ice or some type of debris that broke off starship

[@davidadaway6266]

wow great stuff guys

[@SomeRandomGuy_id]

if the landing with (planned) explosion, I would not want to get on starship to Mars.

[@kenkens9874]

Cameraman is immortal

[@echozuluj4175]

that explosion at the end was intentional?

[@philippbalz1863]

Nicht unbedingt aber das sind ja Testflüge jetzt wird der Hitzeschild und die Manövrierbarkeit analysiert und verbessert das Parship hat ja schon gezeigt das es landen kann im Grunde genommen sind beide Komponenten jetzt mindestens einmal, ohne Boom zu machen, am Boden angekommen 🥳🥳🥳🥳

[@Richard-f4b4r]

Congratulations to everyone involved with these achievements! Amazing!

[@ZDubsMGS]

How much fuel ends up in the ocean?

[@flipz8632]

Not much

[@janwemmel4414]

none: First, almost everything is consumed inflight. Also, the Raptor 2 engines use Methalox (Methane and Oxygen). Both are abundant in water anyways, so whatever is left will be a literal drop in an ocean-sized bucket

[@ZDubsMGS]

@janwemmel4414 Thanks for this!! Much appreciated and great to learn.

[@StephanCorbin]

Merci majestueuse

[@sathyasundaramd979]

Super fantastic

[@josedavid4574]

qual é o objetivo desse teste?

[@cdz9400]

It looks like when it hit the water the engine didn't shut off and it kept bouncing around

[@philippbalz1863]

Auf der ungeschützten Seite hatte es wohl nur so 500 Grad gehabt 😇😁

[@russguppy8761]

Maverick buzzed the tower Are you kidding me You guy put a ship in space and and caught it with chopsticks when it came back and you couldn’t come up with an original nickname

[@flipz8632]

Really...... THAT'S what youre choosing to nitpick

[@daffydaffy7673]

Anybody want fried fish😅

[@VasylRabokucma]

Space 🚀🚀🚀🛰️🎉🎉🎉

[@NicholasYan]

Why can't starship land on ground? A

[@flipz8632]

Cause this is a test program and its too risky to try and land an experimental rocket of thay size new crew and importiant infrastructure

[@jessicasimplicioreis3824]

🇵🇱🇨🇵🇧🇻🇧🇷🇳🇿🇸🇬🇺🇲🇦🇷🇦🇷🇮🇹🇨🇦🇨🇦🇺🇲🇸🇬🇺🇲🇧🇻🇵🇱

[@9xauto]

This ablative is burning. Not good. I saw Elon's face after Starship landing. He did not look like a happy camper. I think it is a time to build a high temperature testing facility. You can't build Starships to burn in the atmosphere on regular basis. At one post it stops to making financial sense. Defiantly not a reusable craft for now. Not like a booster.

[@kenkens9874]

Flat earth: They're using good video effects and green screen

[@cesarzapata6454]

Plana tienes la cabeza

[@MrBentpenny]

you couldnt be more wrong

[@flipz8632]

Nice rage bait buddy