DJI Straps an Osmo Action 6 to a Rocket Ship for a Wild Ride

DJI mounted an Osmo Action 6 camera to a rocket ship, filming its ascent into near-space and back down again.

The camera was mounted to a LandSpace rocket; LandSpace is a commercial space launch company based in China.

The uncut nine-minute video shows a LandSpace Zhuque-3 reusable rocket flight on August 19 taking off from what is believed to be Jiuquan Spaceport in the Gobi Desert in northwest China.

After two minutes of intense thrust, the Osmo Action 6 captures the Earth’s horizon and soon after the main engines shut off.

From there, it’s a graceful descent back to terra firma in which the rocket impressively picks out its landing pad and touches down vertically.

The mount and housing for the Osmo Action 6.

DJI says that the flight marked “aerospace history,” and there were actually 12 cameras mounted to the rocket ship, which provided “valuable first-person perspectives of China’s first successful land-based orbital launch and recovery.”

DJI says that the Osmo Action 6 cameras were all consumer-grade — receiving no special modification other than the housing they were placed in.

“For DJI, the world leader in civilian drones and creative camera technology, this marks an extraordinary milestone,” the company says.

“Not only did the Osmo Action 6 withstand extreme 500 degrees Celsius (932 degrees Fahrenheit) operating conditions to leave and return to Earth, but it also brought back extraordinarily valuable high-fidelity first-person footage for aerospace engineers to review the recovery process, assess the rocket’s first-stage body condition, and replicate successes.”

DJI says it was using its full ecosystem of cameras: including the soon-to-be-launched Osmo 360 II camera for panoramic 360-degree imaging, the DJI Mavic 4 Pro for aerial photography, the DJI Matrice 4TD for thermal imaging, the DJI Avata 360 for aerial panoramic photography, and the Osmo Pocket 4P for cinematic-quality footage.

The Osmo Action 6 features a Type 1/1.1 image sensor that sports a variable f/2-4 aperture.

As well as surviving the high heat, it also survived the intense vibrations from the rocket ship while continuing to capture smooth footage. DJI says that this is down to the Osmo Action 6’s “new-generation, ultra-powerful stabilization algorithm” that keeps the picture steady amid the rocket’s violent shaking.

Despite its impressive capabilities, new units of the DJI Osmo Action 6 are effectively banned in the U.S. — although there are workarounds.

Image creditsDJI