The SpaceX founder tweeted a video entitled “How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster,” after teasing the “blooper reel” last week.
Musk asserts that the cost of the Falcon 9 will be reduced by more than 100 times, at the end of a “long road to reusability” of the Falcon 9’s primary boost stage. That represents an impressive advancement toward practical space exploration and a major potential victory for SpaceX.
In the meantime, Musk has offered us what he called “epic explosion footage” to the tune of John Philip Sousa’s “The Liberty Bell,” famous as the theme to Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The video depicts explosive failures dating as far back as 2013.
In another apparent nod toward the legendary British comedy troupe, Musk looks over the wreckage of one of the failed crafts, saying that “it’s just a scratch.” The video continues the parade of technical learning experiences with the same pithy sense of humor: “Well, technically it did land… Just not in one piece.” Later, “Look, that’s not an “explosion,” it’s just a rapid unscheduled disassembly.”
The video wraps by showing the eventual successes which brought them to the forefront of the privatized space race, with the caption “You are my everything.” If you are interested in checking the video out, a high-resolution version is available on YouTube.
Meanwhile, the ever-ambitious Musk is moving, as always, onto the next challenge. The Falcon Heavy, preparing for testing in November 2017, will use three Falcon 9 boosters in its first stage. Optimally, all three will be reusable — and not fodder for another blooper reel.
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