SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted a video on Twitter depicting lightning energizing a Starship at the company's Texas facility. However, there is no need to be concerned because the business only demonstrates the rocket's electric potential!
The reusable Starship is ready for its first orbital trip, intending to send humans to Mars one day. Elon Musk obtained the footage on a rainy night with lots of lightning, demonstrates how it's already exciting spectators.
Lightning strikes the spaceship repeatedly in the footage with no apparent impact. It was captured during a thunderstorm at the company's Boca Chica site in Texas, where engineers are working on the Starship rocket, which might someday transport humans to Mars. The spacecraft is presently undergoing testing in preparation for its first orbital mission.
"This is real btw," Musk added after posting the video. He implied that the incident appears to be nearly too good to be true.
Musk also tweeted a YouTube link to a 1974 trailer for the film "Young Frankenstein," which featured comparable lightning storms to the one seen in the Starship video.
SpaceX Starship Hit By Lightning, Is It Really Real?
This video is one of many that show the evolution of SpaceX's coveted spaceship. The Starship, which SpaceX first revealed in 2017, is expected to transport up to 100 tons of goods or 150 passengers to space at a time. It will run on liquid oxygen and methane, allowing people to go to Mars, recharge using the red planet's resources, and then choose whether to return to Earth or travel deeper into space.
The Starship, according to Musk, will allow people to travel to numerous worlds.
ALSO READ: SpaceX to Add More Crew Dragon Fleet As Cargo Ship Will Bring 4,600 Pounds of Supplies to ISS
Previous pictures of the Starship show how it could carry 240 Starlink satellites on a single flight, how it might operate with Musk's "Mechazilla" grabbing tower, and how it looks to stand 400 feet tall at the tower with its Super Heavy rocket.
LabPadre, a 24-hour webcast of the SpaceX Boca Chica construction complex, also shared the video.
SpaceX Faces Another Problem With FAA For Starship's First Orbital Launch
The Starship's historic launch, on the other hand, may take some time. According to Inverse, the US Federal Aviation Administration said this week that it will prolong the public comment period on SpaceX's environmental study. The public comment period for the study, which is a key roadblock to Starship's orbital launch, has been extended until November 1. With that, the orbital launch might be postponed this year.
By the mid-2020s, SpaceX hopes to fly the first humans to Mars, paving the way for constructing a full-fledged metropolis on the Red Planet by 2050.
The Starship and Super Heavy mission will launch from Boca Chica once it receives FAA permission. Around three minutes after lift-off, the Super Heavy booster would create a splash in the Gulf of Mexico, just off the coast of Boca Chica. The Starship would next enter orbit and perform a reentry after completing less than an orbit, falling 100 kilometers northwest of the Hawaiian island of Kauai in roughly 90 minutes.
RELATED ARTICLE: Elon Musk Tells Jeff Bezos That Blue Origin's Legal Fight with NASA Won't Guarantee Its Way To Moon
Check out more news and information on SpaceX in Science Times.