The journey to Mars has taken one more step to reality thanks to the recent launch of the Space X Falcon Heavy and National Geographic was there to exclusively record Elon Musk’s reaction to the event! The network has been filming footage of Musk and his team to be used in the second season of their docudrama series ‘Mars’ which is scheduled to air this fall, but you don’t have to wait until then to see Musk’s reaction. You can watch it below!
From his initial expression, Musk didn’t seem necessarily confident that the launch would go without a hitch, but as it successfully started to push off the launch pad, that hesitation turned into amazement. Expressing the thoughts of those who were also watching, Musk exclaims, “Holy flying f**k! That thing took off!” Running outside to watch as the rocket rose upwards, the SpaceX founder was clearly filled with happiness and astonishment as he shouts, “That’s unreal!”
And unreal it definitely was! The Falcon Heavy is now the most powerful operational rocket capable of lifting 141,000 pounds of cargo into a low earth orbit. In other words, this rocket can launch 10 African elephants into space. Instead of elephants, however, Musk decided on a couple rather special pieces of cargo: a Tesla Roadster complete with a “Starman” decked out in a SpaceX flight suit at the wheel.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, two of the three first-stage boosters that were part of the Falcon Heavy nailed their landings side by side!
The Falcon Heavy has had quite a tumultuous journey to get to this point since it was first announced in 2011. As Musk explained, “We tried to cancel the Falcon Heavy program three times at SpaceX, because it [was] way harder than we thought.”
Now that this remarkable feat has been accomplished, what’s next for SpaceX? Musk plans to refine the rocket and develop the BFR booster and a corresponding spaceship which he hopes will reach Mars one day.
“Crazy things can come true,” Musk had said after the launch. “When I see a rocket lift off, I see a thousand things that could not work, and it’s amazing when they do.”
