![]() But we are all part of something incredibly special." It doesn't come along very often, once in a career maybe. "For once, I might be speechless," launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson told her team at Kennedy Space Center, after they had sent the rocket on its way. Rocket Ranch guests came from all over the US - states like Colorado and Alabama - and the world, including Canada, France and Germany.Space NASA is set to return to the moon. Otherwise, the only way to access "The Outpost" is by a small pontoon boat in the Rio Grande River. Guests had to arrive by bus on Wednesday evening because the surrounding roads were blocked off ahead of the launch to keep people out of the area. "I voluntarily assume all risks associated with viewing rocket launches on Rocket Ranch property, including the risk of physical and emotional harm," the waiver reads. The viewing site was so close to the pad that patrons had to sign waivers. He hired caterers, checked in the guests that set up tents on free patches of land and reserved buses that trucked the Rocket Ranch guests to a viewing site called "The Outpost." It lies just 3.8 miles from the launch pad. Some of them, engineers in their day job, speculated about the valve issue that plagued Monday's launch attempt.Īnthony Gomez, a managing partner at the ranch, was the ringleader of the festivities. When CNN visited on Tuesday ahead of the launch, guests were hanging out in the communal on-site cabin, watching a YouTube channel that streams a view of Starship 24/7. They gathered at a place aptly named Rocket Ranch - which was created for SpaceX aficionados.Īnd the camping site - which is just 20 minutes from the launch pad near Boca Chica Beach - is frequented by hobbyists who follow every Starship development with fervid enthusiasm. ET, but exploded midair a few moments later. Most of the public at today's launch watched from South Padre Island, which lies about five miles away from the launch site across the water.īut one group of hardcore fans got a bit closer to see the rocket, which took off from a launch pad on the southern coast of Texas on Thursday at 9:28 a.m. ![]() Spectators are seen at "The Outpost," a Starship viewing location set up by the local Rocket Ranch, near Boca Chica beach in Texas. I think it matters, you know, to other kids around the world and to all the creative people that it is artists who are going to fly around the moon," he said. "I felt like so many things I had to overcome in my life prepared me for being here and being part of this and carry the weight the way it is. "That's when I realized how alive this machine is and how intense it is and will be when we actually strap ourselves in and leave the planet - which is in itself an absurd thought."Īnother future crew member, Yemi Akinyemi Dele, said he has no qualms about going on a future flight. Many of us - I think - we're ready to scramble," he said. He said members of the Dear Moon crew were invited to get an up-close look at the rocket shortly after the scrubbed launch attempt. What did give him a "feeling of intensity" was visiting the rocket shortly after the scrubbed launch attempt on Monday. He understood it was an early fight test and he was essentially watching a prototype take flight. Iliya added that watching the rocket explode today didn't give him any extra nerves for his future spaceflight. "It was just this feeling of joy and energy running through the crowd and through the people." "This wave of sound just smashed into my body, and I could feel it and I could hear it and I thought: 'Am I really going inside that machine?' It was absolutely wild," Iliya told CNN. Today's test flight only sought to get to near orbital speeds and make a partial lap of the planet. More than a dozen launches - carrying nothing but propellant - may be required to give a single Starship lunar lander enough fuel to traverse the 238,900-mile (384,500-kilometer) void between the Earth and the moon.īefore SpaceX can even hash out that process, it'll also need to learn to put Starship into orbit in the first place. The sheer mass of the vehicle will force the company to refuel the spacecraft while it's still in Earth's orbit. Before that mission can take off, however, SpaceX has to prove that Starship can make it to the moon. NASA tapped SpaceX's Starship to serve as a lunar lander, ferrying astronauts from a separate spacecraft down to the lunar surface for the Artemis III mission, which is currently scheduled for as early as 2025. Before Starship can complete its first grand mission or host astronauts, SpaceX has significant technological questions to hash out. This test flight was a small step in a grand project. Onlookers watch as SpaceX's Starship take off near Brownsville, Texas, on Thursday, April 20.
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