I'm completely mind-blown that not only can they do this, but we get 1080p video for almost the whole time.

What cameras do they have that can look at something 30 KM up in the air that well?

Usually it is a small telescope on a nice motorized mount weighing a ton. NASA had several of those around Cape Canaveral [1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xig3sL_rRH8

The thing that impresses me even more is the kinds of cameras they mount on the rocket. How do they shield it from all the heat and debris with a material that's optically clear?

Sapphire glass windows: they're good for up to 2000 C, mechanically strong and chemically resistant, and remarkably cheap.

Sapphire is Aluminum Oxide. Transparent Aluminum basically.

It's an amazing material that is not used as much as it should be.

Sapphire windows are good, yes. Want to minimize delta_T across window body (and therefor stress), other materials are better for that. Cameras are sealed to the skin to prevent against any crossflow and enclosures tend to have various thermal insulations (e.g., ablatives).

They put it in places the heat and debris don’t go.

At one time they were using gopros.

As in life, when a person is on a road to nowhere, it’s the homecoming that’s sweet. The only thing more exciting than an Earth landing will be a moon or Martian landing. Or the in-orbit fuel consolidation docking, if only because it will be a huge milestone.

https://open.spotify.com/track/7wFmJxJfGCN6DM5913y7pr?si=-Uo...