Recording a test flight of SpaceX’s Starship atop Super Heavy

For this extraordinary installation, the “venue” was far from conventional: the sand dunes of South Texas, just miles from the US-Mexico border and directly across from the launch pad of the most powerful rocket ever built – SpaceX’s Starship atop the Super Heavy booster. A team of engineers, collectively known as the Birdwatchers, deployed a suite of Sennheiser microphones to capture the awe-inspiring sound of this monumental event in immersive, spatial audio.

Led by Jason Achilles Mezilis – an audio engineer with NASA credentials and a rock musician by trade – the group also included sound editor Benny Burtt of Skywalker Sound, Justin Foley from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Andrew Keating of Cosmic Perspective, and audio academic Gabe Herman of The Hartt School at the University of Hartford. Their process involved strategically placing Sennheiser microphones on both sides of the launch pad to track the rocket’s ascent and capture the immersive soundscape.

A pair of MKH 8070 long shotgun mics and a MKH 418-S M-S stereo shotgun mic were deployed half a mile south of the pad, while an AMBEO VR ambisonic mic was placed a mile to the north. Recordings were made at 192 kHz/32-bit using Zoom F6 and F3 recorders, ensuring ultra-high fidelity and capturing the full dynamic range of the launch—from the subtlest atmospheric details to the explosive liftoff.

This configuration allowed the team to record an extraordinary audio field: the stereo mics captured directional realism, while the AMBEO VR mic offered an enveloping, 360-degree immersive experience. The result was a stunningly lifelike spatial recording that not only documents the event with unprecedented realism but also opens new doors in how science, technology, and audio storytelling converge.

In doing so, this team created not just a recording, but a visceral, cinematic experience. It’s a project that redefines what “venue” and “installation” can mean, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in immersive audio capture.

This was not a traditional installation. The Birdwatchers had to prepare for one of the most extreme environments on Earth: the SpaceX Starship launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. The team’s goal was to record the rocket launch in immersive audio, but the sonic and physical conditions posed enormous technical and logistical challenges.

First and foremost was the unpredictability of the launch window. Rocket launches are often delayed, so the recording setup had to be capable of running unattended for up to 48 hours. Mezilis, who has experience designing audio systems for Mars exploration, led the engineering. He and the team used battery-powered Zoom F6 and F3 recorders with massive dynamic range to ensure high-fidelity capture at 192 kHz, 32-bit floating point. This allowed the recorders to handle everything from desert winds to the deafening blast of liftoff.

Microphone placement was another key challenge. The team couldn’t risk damage to equipment or loss of data, so locations were scouted in advance for acoustic clarity and safety. A set of Sennheiser MKH 8070 long shotguns and a MKH 418-S stereo mic were positioned half a mile south of the pad, behind dunes and a concrete pillar for protection from the shockwave and debris. The AMBEO VR mic was placed a mile north, chosen specifically for its immersive capture capabilities and to provide spatial perspective from the opposite direction.

Another challenge was the unpredictability of the rocket’s flight path. The two Sennheiser shotgun mics were angled differently to track different segments of the rocket’s ascent. While the audio did not perfectly follow the arc due to the rocket’s speed and curving trajectory, valuable lessons were learned. Meanwhile, the AMBEO VR mic’s performance exceeded expectations, delivering a rich immersive soundfield.

Redundancy, ruggedisation, and creative problem-solving were central to overcoming each challenge. What began as a passion project evolved into a scientific and educational benchmark in high-decibel, large-scale immersive audio capture.

This project exemplifies the spirit of innovation, exploration, and multidisciplinary collaboration that the awards were created to celebrate. It is a groundbreaking achievement in immersive audio recording that brought together world-class engineers, educators, and sound designers to capture a moment in history – the launch of the most powerful rocket ever built – through sound alone.

The Birdwatchers project goes far beyond technical novelty. This was a true system integration challenge, executed in one of the world’s harshest recording environments. In collaboration with Sennheiser and supported academically by Herman of The Hartt School at the University of Hartford, the team pushed existing technology to its limits while innovating new approaches on the fly.

Using a Sennheiser AMBEO VR mic for immersive capture and a series of high-end shotgun mics for directional accuracy, the team produced one of the most authentic, spatially rich audio documents of a space launch ever created. Beyond the audio itself, there are multiple implications for both science and education. Students in audio engineering, acoustics, and physics now have access to real-world data from this extraordinary recording environment. As Herman noted, such projects show students that the same physical principles taught in a classroom can be applied to explore the frontiers of space and sound.

But this project is not just about academia. It is also about inspiration. The team envisions a touring immersive dome that brings this experience to life for the public – children and adults alike. It is a project that bridges the technical and the emotional, the educational and the experiential.

In short, this is not just a recording. It is a cultural artifact. It captures what Mezilis calls “where sound ends”- a poetic and profound frontier of both science and art.