IMAGEFull video of Starship’s seven-minute high-altitude test flightVideo credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now This video replay shot from South Padre Island shows SpaceX’s Starship SN8 prototype rocket taking off from Boca Chica, Texas, climbing high into the atmosphere, then gliding back to a fiery crash landing after an otherwise successful test flight. The nearly seven-minute experimental flight Wednesday began with liftoff at 4:45 p.m. CST (5:45 p.m. EST; 2245 GMT) powered by three Raptor engines. The Raptor engines generated more than a million pounds of thrust at full throttle, guzzling a super-chilled mixture of methane and liquid oxygen. Designed for vertical takeoffs and vertical landings, the Starship is part of a giant new rocket SpaceX says will carry more than 100 tons of cargo into space per mission, and as many as 100 people on expeditions to Mars. The test flight targeted an altitude of 41,000 feet, or 12.5 kilometers, higher than most commercial airliners fly. One of the Raptor engines shut down a little more than a minute-and-a-ha
