Hundreds of thousands of people watched as Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its most powerful rocket ever, Starship. The stainless steal rocket was undergoing its first orbital test flight from its “Starbase” HQ in Texas. Considering that the 400-foot-tall Starship is capable of millions of pounds of thrust force, SpaceX said the surrounding launch area was “cleared well in advance of the test.” Though, it looks like they may have missed a spot.
A video has surfaced of a Dodge Caravan parked near Starship’s launch pad. As a VR camera was capturing the rocket’s launch, the van can be seen on the left side of the frame near some other important-looking equipment. As the Starship takes off, the video shows dust and large rocks being kicked up and propelled at fantastic speeds due to the rocket’s immense thrust. Just a few moments later an object approximately the size of an exercise ball strikes the van’s rear passenger side. It isn’t clear if the object was a boulder, a chunk of concrete, or something else but it was heavy enough to rock the van nearly off its wheels. Other smaller rocks shot through more of the van’s windows. Commentators from the LabPadre YouTube channel even break down the carnage in real time.
By the time the smoke cleared, the Dodge Caravan looked like it was pretty chewed up. The van allegedly belongs to NASASpaceFlight.com and may have been purposefully parked that close to the launch zone to capture close up footage of Starship taking off.
If that’s true that means not only does the website have a very expensive body shop bill in its future, but it probably lost a fair share of expensive camera equipment as well.
On the bright side, Starship started to spin off course during its test and eventually blew up in what SpaceX referred to as a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” The van on the other hand is still relatively in one piece. Looks like Dodge won this round! We wonder how well a Tesla Cybertruck would have withstood that kind of barrage?
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