Yes, I need to retract my prior comment about the engine "exploding" [1]; the failure mode was much more benign, and the surround engines were never under threa

Yes, I need to retract my prior comment about the engine "exploding" [1]; the failure mode was much more benign, and the surround engines were never under threat. However, the nozzle was very clearly ejected following the shut-down, so for all intents and purposes, it became an ex-engine. And the Falcon didn't flinch. Impressive. Watching this private space stuff manifest is absolutely thrilling. I was tangentially involved in things way back in the early 90's, when the private space geeks were regarded as crackpots by the mainstream aerospace community, if indeed they were acknowledged at all. They certainly didn't have any money (aside from odd forays such as Andrew Beal's[2] and Gary Hudson's[3] abortive adventures), and often did come across as crackpots, but for the life of me it seemed like they had a valid point. To see those sort of folks finally succeed is just infinitely thrilling. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4625221 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4625221 [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beal_Aerospace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beal_Aerospace [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_Rocket http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_Rocket