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

Starship Flight 14 ended for its booster with a deliberate explosion: the narrator says SpaceX confirmed that the blast seen in the middle of the booster, just above the surface of the Gulf, was the flight termination system (FTS) being intentionally detonated. The FTS is the explosives on the side of the rocket, and the narrator remarks that sinking the booster there was easier than towing it back to port.

A flight seen from the ground

The footage was gathered from several contributors, including Ceaser G, Colleen, D Wise, Max Evans and Starbase Live, with narration by John Galloway and editing by Thomas Hayden. Much of it keeps the raw flight audio. Ceaser ran a mixing board with multiple microphones, blending them in real time during the launch. Some clicks heard in the audio were remote camera shutters firing, and one shot came from a robotic tracking camera.

Sun transit and updraft

Max Evans captured the rocket crossing the sun, and the narrator points out waves at the top of the sun that he describes as the energy of the rocket. The narrator also notes the exhaust heat rising. Later, a viewer can see an updraft in the middle along the vehicle's path. The chapter list also marks a single Raptor shutting down and the stage separation.

Booster return

Downrange the audio fades, so the narrator talks more. He suggests a shadow seen on the exhaust plume of the booster is likely the ship's shadow, as the sun was coming up, while stressing he is not certain. During the boostback burn, clouds in the background show how fast the booster is moving, and a wave visible against them looks like a bow shock. He sees multiple shocks, coming from the grid fins and from the engines at the bottom of the booster, and expects a third where the flow collapses back together after the hot staging ring at the top.

The booster slowed sharply as it entered the clouds, which made tracking hard for D, who ran multiple monitors, one wider and one telescopic. The booster swings in the way a booster does during a catch, rather than coming straight down onto the tower. It appears to hit the water because of the curvature of the Earth, but the narrator says it did not impact: it stopped just above the Gulf's surface.

Beyond the cameras

The cameras did not capture the ship going to orbit and deploying Starlink satellites. The narrator calls it an operational or qualification mission, whatever you want to call it, and says he is ready for Flight 15.