A SpaceX memory from 2020.
I have seen this countless times and I am still almost as amazed as seeing it the first time.
Who knew we’d see a booster rocket in the sky, breathing fire in its tail, and as it falls down, the rocket is on its own but not to crash and burn in the ocean. It has learned how to steady itself, it knows how to spit out a ball of fire to apply breaks, and it lands back on earth straight like a pine tree, facing the sky — as if it never left.
Who knew we’d see a rocket fired to the edge of the earth returning to us with only trivial scratches. Even synchronised returns of two at once.
It used to fall down. Now it does a reentry. A return to the starting point, a return to home.
[Originally written on 31 August, 2020 near midnight in Pune, India]