When you're Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, and you've pulled off the once-seemingly impossible feat of lifting over 141,000 pounds of cargo into space (i.e. the same weight as ten adult African elephants), your response is going to be a little colorful, to say the least. Indeed, Musk, one of the most powerful, influential people on the planet, didn't censor himself when seeing Falcon Heavy, the world's most powerful operational rocket, fly straight into the air. Check out the video below to see Musk freak out after the launch.
"Holy flying fuck, that thing took off!" are the exact words Elon Musk utters upon watching the Falcon ascend into orbit. And throughout this clip, Musk has no qualms about showing his gleeful excitement over the events that transpire. The exciting clip, provided by Musk himself on his YouTube channel, captures the moments before-and-after the history-making launch on February 8th. But it's Musk's reaction that best expresses what just happened. While Musk isn't always known for his rapturous responses, his wholehearted joy and wonderment show us just how incredible a moment we're witnessing here. The rocket now only went up into space but returned a short while later, through its side boosters that showcase SpaceX's mission to make rockets reusable. This footage and more will be presented in National Geographic Channel's Mars, which is set to return for its second season in the fall.
This launch is part of Elon Musk's long-term goal of sending humans to "Mars and beyond." As Musk admits during a press conference segment later in the video, the CEO didn't believe he could actually pull it off. At least, not so early. Imagining everything that could go wrong, Musk is amazed when it goes right, and he's invigorated by the potential it inspires. He's also marveled by the exhilarating technology that could be made a reality thanks to this advancement. It taught him that "crazy things can come true." Musk sees a future where such launches become a daily occurrence in a "scalable approach," with many flights happening on a given day. When that future will arrive is certainly unclear, but if this video gives us a proper indication, it could arrive sooner than later. In short, this launch could inspire a "profound effect" on humanity.
Elon Musk also took a moment to discuss the flying car that made its way into space recently, something that inspired no shortage of talk on the Internet. The billionaire also talked about how this launch should inspire other countries to get in on the action and launch their own rockets into space. He noted that all the funds that went into this operation were internal and that this rocket launching is the start of something "bigger and better" for both SpaceX and the future of astrophysics.
Whatever becomes of Falcon Heavy and the bright future that Elon Musk envisions in our recent future, it's good to know one thing: even when you're doing the seemingly impossible and breaking new ground, you can still have a genuine human response.
