5 ms·

I think it's ridiculous that a rocket can fly up to 90km and return to Earth in a controlled landing in under 10 minutes. So cool.

• _Microft 6y ago
  The distance between Launch Complex 39-A (LC-39A) to Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) is 17-18km by road. During the Orbcomm-2 mission, the first successful landing of a SpaceX booster took place there approximately 10 minutes after launch, so one would have needed to go 100km/h in average by car to make it from launch pad to the landing zone in time. https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=b49de63c-29a1-4a5d-9742-0fdf6dbc2699&cp=28.551892~-80.615809&lvl=12&style=h&v=2&sV=2&form=S00027 https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=b49de63c-29a1-4a5d-9742-0fdf6...
• mindfulplay 6y ago
  That sort of puts things in perspective. I didn't realize all of that amazing stuff happened in the course of a few minutes... Incredible. For all the silly things Elon Musk does on Twitter, he rightfully takes the credit for building these important machines and building the right team with Gwynne Shotwell.
• BeetleB 6y ago
  Well, the escape velocity for Earth is 11.2 km/s...
  • saagarjha 6y ago
    Surely they don't want to being that fast ;)
    • mr_toad 6y ago
      ISS orbits at 7.6 km/s. There’s a saying that once you’re in LEO you’re halfway across the universe.
• ehsankia 6y ago
  Especially once you get an idea of the scale of the rocket. It's taller than the statue of liberty. Imagine a 24 stories tall building flying into space and landing back upright.