The Astonishing Journey of the SPACEX F9R
I was going to try and say something truly profound for this posts introduction. Watching this SPACEX video for the first time, and for the shame of it, having not been aware of their amazing advancements in rocket propulsion since today, I decided to let a YouTube commentator, by the name of Richard Japenga, speak on my behalf whilst I collect my thoughts:
This boggles my mind, that we are able to create a rocket, with a single booster, fly up to a thousand meters, keep it steady and manoeuvre it back to the ground without the whole thing topping over. Great work +SpaceX If you can make this video look like a 3d render or a version of Kerbal space program running on the Frostbite 3 engine, i know we are going in the right direction.
It really is an astonishing video to watch, especially if like me, you have not seen their previous videos. Shove it on full-screen HD with the bass turned all the way up, sit back and watch those cows run for their lives!
My first thoughts that this was probably just going to be a rocket launch, then it turned into a well video-graphed rocket launch with amazing ultra wide angle shots, but then the clincher: watching the rocket apparently stall, and this is where I just thought I new what was going to happen next… the rocket starts slipping back down in what looks like a stall, but with flames still erupting from the nozzles!
What the hell? Is this a controlled descent? I’m sure at this point we will witness a spectacular explosion—my heart pounding for those poor cows running away for their lives—as the rocket surely builds up speed on it’s downwards trajectory.
No, wrong again.
The boosters are obviously firing for a reason, the descent is controlled, but I’m not sure what I’m seeing here… then you see the ground slowly coming into view and the realisation that the rocket is going to land exactly where it started.
Even when the rocket lands, I’m almost sure this was a fluke. When some of the biggest space nations often fail at a rocket launch, SPACEX can launch and land a rocket with pin point precision. Now subscribed to the SPACEX YouTube channel.
I mean, this was just astonishing. Hope those cows calmed down…
If you want to create more astronauts, show kids more videos like this: https://t.co/YSBOoGX8ib
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) May 2, 2014
