Audio Engineers Record SpaceX Launches In High-Res Spatial Audio

Elon Musk is a very divisive figure, I'm no fan, but I have to admit that SpaceX has achieved some remarkable successes and has made significant contributions to the future of space travel. In particular, the company’s advancements in the efficiency of rocket launches has made it easier to imagine a future in which space-bound launches are as commonplace as international flights are today. I remember watching in awe the first time I saw a successful landing of a Falcon 9 first stage. As it hovered in mid-air and slowly descended onto the landing platform, I felt as if I were living in a sci-fi movie. But for a group of spaceflight enthusiasts calling themselves Birdwatchers, it’s the initial blastoff that inspires a sense of wonder and captures the imagination. That’s why, for the last several years, Birdwatchers like the Los Angeles-based musician, producer, and audio engineer Jason Achilles Mezilis have been trying to figure out how to record 360-degree video and high-quality audio of rocket launches.

There are, of course, many logistical and technological challenges that Mezilis and his fellow Birdwatchers must overcome in order to capture the scale and grandeur of a rocket launch. In the summer of 2024, Mezilis took his audio recording to the next level by adding Sennheiser’s AMBEO VR ambisonic microphone into the mix. Mezilis and his colleagues assembled in south Texas to witness and record the launch of what was hailed as the most powerful rocket ever built. The mission was a test flight of SpaceX’s Starship launch vehicle, which is designed to lift a “super heavy payload” (50 metric tons or more) into low Earth orbit. In order to achieve this, Starship uses SpaceX’s Super Heavy rocket, which is said to develop twice the thrust of the Saturn V rockets used by NASA to send astronauts into space. The occasion marked the first time that launch audio was captured in an immersive format using Sennheiser’s AMBEO mic. “These rockets are so loud that they're tearing the air to shreds,” said Mezilis. “So what we're trying to capture with these launches is where sound ends.”

Mezilis and his fellow Birdwatchers placed a Sennheiser MKH 418-S M-S stereo shotgun mic and a pair of Sennheiser MKH 8070 long shotgun mics as close as they could get to the action — about 800 meters south of the launchpad. The AMBEO VR microphone was then positioned about 1.6 kilometers to the north of the rocket. The final mix would combine the feeds of all the mics into one immersive audio experience. Mezilis learned about the AMBEO VR microphone from Gabe Herman, an audio engineer and producer who teaches music production and technology at The Hartt School, the performing arts conservatory at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. It was his idea to record the rockets in immersive audio. Herman hopes eventually to create an immersive AV experience of these rocket launches for everyone to enjoy. After all, most of us have never experienced a launch in person.

Our dream is to find a way to build a portable dome where we can project 360° video and a 360° audio component so that kids — and adults — who are interested in science can stand next to one of the loudest things on Earth and watch it go off into space in a way that you just can’t experience on YouTube.

— Gabe Herman, Associate Professor of Music Production and Technology at University of Hartford

What we’re trying to capture… this is some of the loudest stuff that there is. And I think that’s appealing to the kid in all of us.

— Jason Achilles Mezilis, Audio Engineer and Producer

Mezilis shares Herman’s vision of the immersive presentations, and even hopes that the experience could inspire future generations of audio engineers to become interested in the field. “When you talk about space, what do kids get excited about? It's black holes – it’s where physics breaks down, and the end of everything,” he said. And as Mezilis points out, enormous rockets and cataclysmic explosions appeal to the kid in all of us. Herman said that many audio students dream of producing hit records, working with pop stars, and winning Grammys. He hopes that learning about more experimental projects such as this endeavor to record rocket launches might broaden his students’ horizons and inspire them to think about different kinds of careers within the audio world. “When you go to audio school, you don’t necessarily think that you're going to end up recording rockets for a living,” said Herman. “But it's all the same physics we experience in the recording studio. This is a way to show a different application of the theoretical concepts covered in the classroom. I think students are excited to learn that there are exciting frontiers in audio that are still being explored.”

One of the challenges of accurately recording a rocket launch is the fact that the flight paths curve. It’s not a straight shot into the sky, and tracking a curved trajectory is difficult when you have to either operate the recording gear remotely, or — as is the case here —  turn it on and let it record continuously while you observe from a safe distance away. Herman hypothesized that the best course of action would be to use two shotgun microphones that would deliver a very narrow focus on the rocket as it ascended from Earth. One mic would capture the beginning of the launch, while the second, angled higher into the sky, would catch the second half of the flightpath. The problem with that approach turned out to be that the mics were actually too specific and focused — they are designed to capture only what they’re pointed at — so they didn’t capture the arc in the way that Herman had hoped. Luckily, the addition of the AMBEO mic recording from a different location successfully captured “a very compelling immersive field,” according to Herman. The mics recorded to Zoom F6 and F3 recorders in very high resolution (32 bit/192kHz). If there has ever been a strong case for maximizing dynamic range in a recording, surely this is it. The recording equipment was set up and turned on prior to launch. Since delays are not uncommon, and the equipment would be inaccessible until after the launch, Herman and Mezilis ensured that the recorders could capture 48 hours of audio. The sensitive equipment was positioned such that the Texas sand dunes and a concrete pillar provided protection for the microphone array, shielding it from the blast and the subsequent dust and debris.

As long as that rocket’s fueled and on the stand, it’s basically a giant bomb. You can't go back to check your equipment.

— Jason Achilles Mezilis

There’s so much here that’s of interest to students and to the scientific community. For the next launch, we are curious to learn more about how sound behaves at the launch site, which will likely require specialized equipment. As the air is literally destroyed, it can be difficult to understand the nature of the awesome force taking place at launch. We hope to build on existing research on this phenomenon and make that more accessible to students. There’s no standard method for recording rockets, so we have to keep experimenting with new mic techniques, and continue to be curious about the physical world.

— Gabe Herman

In February of 2025, SpaceX made preparations for its next launch, completing static test fires and preflight shakedowns for both the rocket’s first stage (the Super Heavy booster) and second stage, known simply as “Ship.” The date for the next launch has not yet been announced as of the time of writing, but it could be just around the corner.