I’ve been an aerospace geek since, well, always. In the great book of life there is a value representing the excessive number of times I watched the movie Top Gun as a child. There is another extreme number for the count of crazy Lego spacecraft I have built. I probably don’t want to know the number of dollars spent on pilot training, but anyway…
It is in that context that I feel compelled to tip my hat in the direction of SpaceX on their successful “catch” of the Starship first stage on October 13th.
That was the equivalent of a 20-story building maneuvering to a precision landing and being caught by a pair of manipulator arms. Absolutely unreal.
The last time I felt that level of aerospace exuberance was when SpaceX simultaneously landed two Falcon Heavy boosters at the same time. I watched that scene in a conference room with about 20 other software engineers, who were all going crazy with excitement at what we had witnessed.
Stay hungry, stay foolish SpaceX.
Video and launch details: https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-5