---
title: "Gorgeous New Animation Shows Starship Going Orbital"
description: "Animator and SpaceX enthusiast Corey Bass has rendered an amazingly photorealistic sequence of a Starship and Super Heavy booster launching to space."
date: "2021-11-30"
modified: "2021-11-30"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/gorgeous-new-animation-shows-starship-going-orbital"
categories:
  - "Space"
  - "SpaceX"
  - "Starship"
tags:
  - "elon musk"
  - "SpaceX"
  - "Starship"
  - "super heavy"
  - "the digest"
---

# Gorgeous New Animation Shows Starship Going Orbital

![Animator and SpaceX enthusiast Corey Bass has rendered an amazingly photorealistic sequence of a Starship and Super Heavy booster launching to space.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/gorgeous-new-animation-shows-starship-going-orbital.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gLbV07eVls" target="\_blank"\>C-bass Productions via YouTube\</a\>\</em\>*

## Going Orbital

Animator and SpaceX enthusiast Corey Bass has rendered a [near-photorealistic video](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gLbV07eVls>) of a Starship and Super Heavy booster launching to Earth's orbit.

The animation shows the massive spacecraft taking off and separating from its Super Heavy booster before propelling itself into orbit.

The sleek video also illustrates the space company's plans to catch the Super Heavy booster using a massive tower that features [two giant "chopstick" arms](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-giant-robot-chopsticks>) — a wild departure from conventional rocketry.

"This is why a lot of us are obsessed with the chopsticks," *NASASpaceFlight* managing editor Chris Bergin [quipped on Twitter](<https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1465712106246795271>).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gLbV07eVls

## Test Flight

As of right now, the render is an educated guess.

"Very little is known about the exact catch sequence, so I decided to animate how I think it may look," Bass wrote in the caption of the video on YouTube.

While SpaceX has made significant progress on [building its launch tower](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-workers-pullups-mechazilla-tower>) and [completing early tests](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-rocket-fuel-starship>) of the first flightworthy Super Heavy booster prototype, we still don't know when exactly the first Starship will enter orbit.

"We’ll do a bunch of tests in December and hopefully launch in January," [Musk said](<https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/17/elon-musk-spacex-will-hopefully-launch-starship-flight-in-january.html>) at a meeting of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Space Studies Board earlier this month.

It will be quite the show, especially if things don't go according to plan.

"There’s a lot of risk associated with this first launch," Musk added, "so I would not say that it is likely to be successful but we’ll make a lot of progress."

In other words, there may just be [yet another Starship explosion](<https://futurism.com/spacex-starship-prototype-lands-explodes-minutes-later>) in our near future.

**More on Starship:** *[Elon Musk Concedes That First Orbital Starship Launch May Explode](<https://futurism.com/elon-musk-first-starship-may-fail>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)