Elon Musk has posted a four-panel video of the Falcon re-entry on his Twitter feed and it’s driving even jaded space-watchers into a frenzy.
With all of SpaceX’s success, it’s easy to forget what a long road it’s been to get to this point. Remember in 2001 when Musk wanted to send experimental greenhouses to Mars using refurbished Soviet ICBMs as rockets? And apparently, one of the chief Russian designers spat on him because he was a novice? Good times.
Then remember when Musk and SpaceX decided to build their own rockets, and they had to actually invent a machine to do it, called a friction-stir welder for aluminum-lithium alloy? How about in 2008 when SpaceX launched the world’s first privately-funded, liquid-fueled rocket into orbit?
That’s all SpaceX history now. Now we’re getting accustomed to SpaceX’s reusable rocket boosters and videos of their landings. But this one is still cool, probably because we can watch the video from four angles at once.
And because, let’s face it, space will always be cool. The video speaks for itself. Enjoy.
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