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IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

Next up, SN9: SpaceX releases a dramatic recap of its Starship SN8 crashing into a huge fireball...

• By STACY LIBERATORE and JONATHAN CHADWICK

Elon Musk's company SpaceX has released HD video footage of its explosive Starship SN8 launch from earlier this month. 

The dramatic two-minute clip shows the uncrewed rocket taking off from the firm's Boca Chica, Texas testing facility at 5:45pm ET (10:45pm GMT) on December 9.

It's seen performing an aerobatic landing flip manoeuvre and a controlled descent before hitting the ground around six minutes after lift-off in a spectacular orange fireball.    

SpaceX is planning to send humans to Mars using a two-stage spacecraft composed of Starship (the passenger-carrying section) and the Super Heavy rocket booster.

However, the firm has some work to do to finish the construction of the $216 million Starship, previously known as 'BFR', at SpaceX's Texas development site. 

Starship SN8 – short for 'serial number eight' – is the latest prototype to have lifted off and is set to be followed by SN9, which rolled out onto its launchpad on Tuesday and will launched in the coming weeks. 

'Starship serial number 8 (SN8) completed a high-altitude flight test as it successfully ascended, transitioned propellant, and demonstrated a first-of-its-kind controlled aerodynamic descent and landing flip maneuver,' SpaceX said.

'[This] will enable landing where prepared surfaces or runways do not exist, including the Moon, Mars, and beyond.'