True to his word, Elon Musk posted the much-hyped blooper reel of every SpaceX rocket failure, complete with massive explosions and the billionaires’ unique sense of humor.
The video, titled “How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster,” is ironically set to John Sousa’s uplifting military march Liberty Bell, a tune better known as the theme song to Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Musk, a big fan of the British comedy group, claims he did most of the editing.
Musk introduced the video on Instagram, calling it, “The sordid history of how the @SpaceX Falcon 9, the first fully reusable, orbit-class booster rocket, eventually managed to land in one piece and stay that way.”
The two-minute clip shows rocket after rocket exploding, tipping over, crashing, and falling apart. The destruction is shown in chronological order with captions explaining the many reasons they fail, from running out of hydraulic fluid to engine sensor failure. One particularly devastating scene shot in April 2015 shows a rocket landing slightly off-kilter causing it to fall slowly to the ground before instantly exploding on impact.
Long road to reusabity of Falcon 9 primary boost stage…When upper stage & fairing also reusable, costs will drop by a factor >100. pic.twitter.com/WyTAQ3T9EP
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 14, 2017
Fortunately, SpaceX’s last 12 landing attempts, including recycled spacecraft, were successful. That doesn’t give us hope for a second installment, but hey, at least we’ve got life on Mars to look forward to.
H/T The Next Web