Liftoff Videos

Every mission, with the videos that tell it

Starship

The Starship launch vehicle fully stacked on its launch mount.

Photo: Hotel Pika / CC BY-SA 2.0

Starship is SpaceX’s fully reusable, two-stage launch system, built and flown from Starbase in Texas. The Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage both burn liquid methane and oxygen in Raptor engines. The plan is for both to come back to the launch site, and for the upper stage to work as a spacecraft carrying crew and cargo, refuelled in orbit for flights beyond Earth orbit. Its first flight, Starship Flight 1, was in April 2023. Wikipedia counts 14 launches as of 28 September 2026, nine of them successful and five failures. SpaceX is aiming it at the Moon first and then Mars.

Events

  • 28 September 2026

    Starship Flight 14

    Thirty-three engines lifted the stack, and one of the ship's engines shut down early. That decided the flight: SpaceX first chose not to commit to orbit, then polled again and gave a go.

    8 videos
    • CNET
    • Everyday Astronaut
    • Scott Manley

  • 24 July 2026

    Starship Flight 13

    Flight 13 was the second flight of Starship V3. The first attempt aborted at ignition, and SpaceX explained on the webcast that the pad abort came on four engines.

    4 videos
    • Everyday Astronaut
    • VideoFromSpace
    • Scott Manley

  • 26 August 2025

    Starship Flight 10

    SpaceX's own recap is short and gives the sequence rather than the detail: countdown and propellant close-out, liftoff, stage separation, engine cutoff and preparation for a payload deploy, and a relight demonstration.

    1 video
    • SpaceX

  • 7 March 2025

    Starship Flight 8

    The flight repeated two things that had worked before: hot staging and a booster catch. It also repeated the loss of the ship.

    1 video
    • The Launch Pad

  • 19 November 2024

    Starship Flight 6

    The point of the flight was to repeat the Flight 5 success and prove the ship could relight an engine in space, which a return from orbit would need.

    1 video
    • SpaceX

  • 13 October 2024

    Starship Flight 5

    Catching a booster that weighs hundreds of tonnes with a pair of steel arms had never been done. The decision to try came after the boostback burn and was left to the last minute: the catch depended on health checks of the tower and the booster.

    2 videos
    • SpaceX
    • look what's inside

  • 20 April 2023

    Starship Flight 1

    Thirty-three Raptor engines on the booster, six on the ship, and one goal that SpaceX named for the day: clear the pad. A first attempt on the Monday was stood down when a pressurisation valve on the booster froze.

    2 videos
    • SpaceX

  • Starship Super Heavy Booster 9 static fire

    1 video
    • SpaceX

  • International Space Station deorbit

    1 video
    • The B1M

  • Artemis III

    Artemis III was meant to be the landing. By 2026 the lunar landers were not ready and the Gateway station that Orion was to meet had been dropped, so NASA rebuilt the mission around what could fly in 2027.

    3 videos
    • NASA
    • The Space Race
    • Cosmic Enigma

  • Starship Flight 12

    V3 brings Raptor 3 engines, a new pad and an earlier max Q and stage separation. The first launch attempt was scrubbed because of a pin on the ship's quick-disconnect arm, and the flight came the next day.

    4 videos
    • Everyday Astronaut
    • SpaceX

Videos on this topic

The videos, in date order

Drag, zoom or press play to watch them on this page.

  1. Starship Flight 1: Pad Cleared, Then Tumble Ended the Test

    SpaceX

  2. Starship Flight 1: S24 and Super Heavy B7 Lift Off from Starbase

    SpaceX

  3. Starship Booster 9 Static Fire: 2.74 Seconds, Four Engines Out

    SpaceX

  4. Super Heavy Booster 9 Fires 33 Raptors in Second Static Fire

    SpaceX

  5. Super Heavy’s 33 Raptors vs Saturn V’s Five F1 Engines Explained

    Curious Droid

  6. Starship Flight 5: Super Heavy Booster Caught on First Attempt

    SpaceX

  7. Starship Flight 6: Engine Relight, Aborted Catch, Ship Splashdown

    SpaceX

  8. Starship Flight 8: Booster Caught, Then the Ship Loses Engines

    The Launch Pad

  9. How the ISS Will Be Destroyed at Point Nemo in 2030

    The B1M

  10. ISS History: Assembly, Crises and the Plan to Deorbit by 2030

    Classic Aerospace History

  11. Starship Flight 10: Launch from Starbase and Objectives Met

    SpaceX

  12. Starship HLS Update: 49 Milestones and a Simplified Artemis 3 Plan

    Everyday Astronaut

  13. How the Vandenberg Range Decides Launch Weather, Zones and Destruct

    Everyday Astronaut

  14. Starship HLS: Why Landing on the Moon Needs 15+ Refueling Launches

    Everyday Astronaut

  15. Starship V3 Flight 12: Pad 2, Raptor 3, Booster 19 and Ship 39

    Everyday Astronaut

  16. Starship Flight 12: Countdown to the First V3 Launch from Pad 2

    Everyday Astronaut

  17. Starship Flight 12: First V3 Launch, Booster Loss and Engine Out

    Everyday Astronaut

  18. Starship Flight 12: Inside the Final Days Before the First V3

    SpaceX

  19. Starship Flight 13 Scrub: Booster Abort at Startup on Pad 2

    Everyday Astronaut

  20. Starship Flight 13: Booster Splashdown and Ship Orbit Insertion

    VideoFromSpace

  21. Starship Flight 13: Pad Abort Cause and 20 Starlink V3 Satellites

    Everyday Astronaut

  22. Starlab Station Tour: Voyager’s Starship-Sized Research Outpost

    Everyday Astronaut

  23. Starship 40 Reaches Christmas Island: Damage and the Trip Home

    Scott Manley

  24. Zhuque-3 Landing, Roman Telescope Launch and SpaceX’s Louisiana Plan

    Scott Manley

  25. Starship Ship 40: Towing a Floating Rocket Across the Indian Ocean

    SpaceX

  26. Why Starship V3’s Super Heavy Booster Has Only Three Grid Fins

    Everyday Astronaut

  27. Starship Flight 14: First Orbit and 26 V3 Starlink Satellites

    CNET

  28. Starship Flight 14: First Orbit and 26 Starlink V3 Deployed

    Everyday Astronaut

  29. Starship Flight 14: First Orbit and Starlink V3 Deployment

    The Space Race

  30. Starship Flight 14: First Orbit, 26 Starlink V3s and an Early Return

    Scott Manley

  31. Starship Flight 14: Orbit, 26 Starlink V3 Satellites, Early Deorbit

    NASASpaceflight

  32. Starship Flight 14: Sun Transit, Booster Descent and FTS Blast

    NASASpaceflight

  33. Starship Flight 14 Reaches Orbit and Three Falcons Fly in One Day

    Scott Manley

  34. Artemis 3 Update: Rocket Progress, Landers and the 2028 Plan

    NASA

  35. Deep Space Updates: MMX to Phobos, Crew-12 Return, Neutron Delay

    Scott Manley

  36. Artemis III: Orion Docks With Blue Moon and Starship in Orbit

    The Space Race

  37. Starship Flight 14: First Orbit and 26 Starlink V3 Satellites

    Beyond The Space

  38. Starship Flight 14: How V3 Reached Orbit and Deployed 26 Satellites

    Curiously Brief

  39. Starship Flights 1 to 14: How Build-Fly-Fail-Fix Reached Orbit

    Beyond Liftoff

  40. Starship’s 33 Raptor Engines: Four Reasons Behind Super Heavy

    Celebrity Files

  41. How Starship’s Tower Catches Super Heavy: Flight 5 and After

    look what's inside

  42. Artemis 3 Becomes an Earth-Orbit Rehearsal for Moon Landers

    Cosmic Enigma

  43. Why Starship’s Heat Shield Uses Hexagonal Tiles and Full Reuse

    Farzad
Play video: Why Starship’s Heat Shield Uses Hexagonal Tiles and Full Reuse

Why Starship’s Heat Shield Uses Hexagonal Tiles and Full Reuse

Farzad

Duration 22:38

Watch video

Dates are when each video was first published on YouTube.

All the videos

  3. Starship 40 Reaches Christmas Island: Damage and the Trip Home

    Mission explainerScott Manley · 16:46

    Mission: Starship Flight 13 (2026)

  4. Starship Flight 14: Sun Transit, Booster Descent and FTS Blast

    Launch coverageNASASpaceflight · 12:52

    Mission: Starship Flight 14 (2026)

  9. Starship Flight 14: First Orbit, 26 Starlink V3s and an Early Return

    Mission explainerScott Manley · 27:00

    Mission: Starship Flight 14 (2026)

  10. Starship Flight 14: Orbit, 26 Starlink V3 Satellites, Early Deorbit

    Launch coverageNASASpaceflight · 25:49

    Mission: Starship Flight 14 (2026)

  11. Starship Booster 9 Static Fire: 2.74 Seconds, Four Engines Out

    Launch coverageSpaceX · 7:46

    Mission: Starship Super Heavy Booster 9 static fire

  13. How the ISS Will Be Destroyed at Point Nemo in 2030

    DocumentaryThe B1M · 32:29

    Mission: International Space Station deorbit

  15. Artemis 3 Becomes an Earth-Orbit Rehearsal for Moon Landers

    Mission explainerCosmic Enigma · 16:54

    Mission: Artemis III

  16. How Starship’s Tower Catches Super Heavy: Flight 5 and After

    Mission explainerlook what's inside · 11:13

    Mission: Starship Flight 5 (2024)

  19. Artemis III: Orion Docks With Blue Moon and Starship in Orbit

    Mission explainerThe Space Race · 20:04

    Mission: Artemis III

  20. ISS History: Assembly, Crises and the Plan to Deorbit by 2030

    DocumentaryClassic Aerospace History · 1:13:57

  21. Starship Flight 14: How V3 Reached Orbit and Deployed 26 Satellites

    Vehicle explainerCuriously Brief · 25:00

    Mission: Starship Flight 14 (2026)

  22. Starship Flight 14: First Orbit and 26 Starlink V3 Satellites

    Mission explainerBeyond The Space · 26:09

    Mission: Starship Flight 14 (2026)

  23. Starship HLS: Why Landing on the Moon Needs 15+ Refueling Launches

    Vehicle explainerEveryday Astronaut · 1:45:04

  24. Starship V3 Flight 12: Pad 2, Raptor 3, Booster 19 and Ship 39

    Vehicle explainerEveryday Astronaut · 16:07

    Mission: Starship Flight 12

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