The disastrous launch of the SpaceX Starship rocket last week brought losses not only to the company, but also to the photographers who tried to shoot the epic launch. A YouTube blogger under the pseudonym LabPadre recorded a creepy video with his camera with additional protection, as 33 powerful engines created a shock wave that crushed a minivan parked dangerously close to the launch pad.
Although the car was not completely destroyed, it definitely suffered serious damage. It turned out that the van belonged to NASASpaceflight journalist Chris Bergin. Later, the journalist noted that he “deliberately risked so much to get cool images”.
“We are always very grateful when space companies allow the media to place cameras in the dangerous area of the launch pad,” he joked.
A quick analysis of the Minivan being hit, 1st here’s a straightened 20 seconds of the impact! pic.twitter.com/jT9sjvNtEd
— Robert Bilsland (@BobBilsland) April 22, 2023
The minivan wasn’t the only one damaged during SpaceX’s unfortunate first attempt to launch the Starship orbiter. Since the Starbase of the company owned by Elon Musk is located near a wildlife reserve, debris from the ignition of engines fell on this state-protected land, and local residents of the neighboring city of Port Isabel, Texas, also had to deal with a layer of dust and dirt, and a window was even broken in one building, the New York Times reported.
The launch pad also experienced destruction. The pictures taken a few days after the launch of Starship clearly demonstrate the scale of the destruction. Among them are huge concrete fragments, pieces of mutilated iron, as well as a 20-meter crater under the launch pad. The reason for such destruction was that the Starship engines exceeded the planned power than expected in the calculations.
Earlier we reported on how the satellite witnessed the crash of Starship from space.
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