The largest rocket ever built launched on its sixth test flight earlier this week, wowing spectators on the ground — and even some in space.
SpaceX’s monstrous, 400-foot-tall (122 meters) Starship rocket launched Tuesday evening (Nov. 19), lifting off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas at 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT). The spectacle was watched by tens of thousands in surrounding cities and towns, streamed by millions, and witnessed by a few astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA astronaut Don Pettit, known, in part, for the fantastic photographs he captures from space, had his camera in hand as the ISS passed over Texas on Tuesday evening, just as Starship’s launch was underway. “We just happened to be overhead!” Pettit said in a social media post on X (formerly Twitter),sharing a photo of the rocket’s launch plume against the deep blue backdrop of the Gulf of Mexico.
Pettit’s camera wasn’t the only one on the ISS to capture SpaceX’s Starship Flight 6 from orbit. The Earth-imaging company Sen recorded stunning high-resolution views of the launch from its 4K cameras mounted to the exterior of the space station.
“Congratulations, SpaceX, on the increrdible sixth test flight of Starship. We captured the launch plume live from our cameras on the Space Station,” Sen wrote on X and YouTube while sharing the video.
Sen has been testing its new 4K-resolution cameras on the ISS exterior for the last several months.
The SpaceX Flight 6 mission was the first Starship to launch in the latter half of the day, positioning the sun opposite where it was during the first five Starship launches. The shift shined a new light on Starship for viewers, as the golden hour sun glistened off the rocket’s frosty silver exterior.
Related: What’s next for SpaceX’s Starship after its successful 6th test flight?
The difference in lighting could be seen from orbit, too. A blue haze of atmosphere filters Earth and sea in Pettit’s photo, as the sunlight illuminates Starship’s exhaust plume to a strikingly contrasted white tail, which casts its miles-long shadow on the water below.
Starship launch from @ISS. We happened to be overhead! pic.twitter.com/SLRlLoRrivNovember 21, 2024
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