---
title: "Watch SpaceX’s Epic Starship Test Flight From Inside the Giant Rocket"
description: "A new video uploaded by SpaceX shows off the company's impressive first full-scale Starship hop in glorious HD. We even got an inside view."
date: "2020-08-05"
modified: "2020-08-05"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/watch-spacex-starship-test-inside-rocket"
categories:
  - "Space"
  - "SpaceX"
  - "Starship"
tags:
  - "elon musk"
  - "SpaceX"
  - "Starship"
  - "the digest"
---

# Watch SpaceX’s Epic Starship Test Flight From Inside the Giant Rocket

![A new video uploaded by SpaceX shows off the company's impressive first full-scale Starship hop in glorious HD. We even got an inside view.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/spacex-starship-hop-test-flight-inside-starship.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: SpaceX\</em\>*

## And Now in HD

Yesterday evening at its testing facilities near Boca Chica, Texas, SpaceX [flew its gigantic SN5 Starship prototype](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-hops-full-scale-starship-prototype>) to an impressive 500 feet.

And now, we get to watch the event not from a shaky camera set up miles away by onlookers — but in crispy high definition video, courtesy of SpaceX, recorded by drones surveying the incredible event and even inside the giant rocket itself.

https://youtu.be/s1HA9LlFNM0

## Inside Look

The internal view even shows the self-stabilizing Raptor engine pumping out thrust by burning liquid methane and oxygen.

The video also shows side thrusters firing, ensuring that the water tower-like structure stays upright during flight.

## Spider Legs

Towards the end of SpaceX's video, Starship's six stubby and telescopic legs can be seen swinging out from inside the chassis, ensuring the prototype can securely make its landing.

SpaceX has changed the design of the vehicle's landing legs during development. Early versions, as [shown in renders](<https://youtu.be/C8JyvzU0CXU>), resembled those found on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket boosters, extending from the rocket's sides.

The leg design shown off in today's video, however, differs greatly from Falcon 9's, flipping down from attachment points inside Starship's fuselage. They're designed to allow landings on uneven ground — including the lunar and Martian surface.

"We’re working on new legs,” Musk wrote in a [June tweet](<https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1270062575833640960>). "Wider stance & able to auto-level. Important for leaning into wind or landing on rocky & pitted surfaces."

**More on the launch:** [Incredible: Watch SpaceX Fly Full-Scale Starship Prototype to 500 Feet](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-hops-full-scale-starship-prototype>)

## 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>)