I still remember watching Falcon 9 (Block V, iirc) successfully landing back on land (as opposed to droneships) after deploying Orbcomm OG2 satellites in December 2015 -- almost 11 years ago.
It blew my teen mind.
This day marks a fabulous advancement for the human species.
[−]giancarlostoro · 2026-11-14 Sat 22:45 UTC ·
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We went outside in our Orlando office to see the flair up in the sky, and then were looking for the re-entry, by the time we could figure out where it was our coworker said it was already standing upright.
I was at Canaveral for the double booster return (Heavy?), and it's unbelievable the velocity those things come back down at, with the powered deceleration.
A few seconds after the sonic boom, you're seeing them cancel out the last of their velocity and land on the pad.
One of those 'it can't possibly be that big because nothing that big could be moving that fast' optical lack of reference moments.
[−]somenameforme · 2026-11-15 Sun 02:21 UTC ·
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Yeah I think people that have never seen one of the beasts just can't imagine the scale. Fully 'assembled, the height is upwards of 120m - 70 on the booster, 50 on the upper stage. So it's something bigger than a football/handegg field going into space and something still in the same ballpark coming down at near freefall, then slowing itself, and landing on a spot with a margin of error of a few meters.
It blew my teen mind.
This day marks a fabulous advancement for the human species.
A few seconds after the sonic boom, you're seeing them cancel out the last of their velocity and land on the pad.
One of those 'it can't possibly be that big because nothing that big could be moving that fast' optical lack of reference moments.