Millions of people tuned in to watched the historic launch of the Falcon Heavy — SpaceX’s largest operational rocket. But none of them were as invested as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
“Holy flying fuck, that thing took off,” he said from mission control before running outside to watch booster soar through the air.
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Musk stood amongst awe-struck onlookers, hands over his head, beaming with joy as the rocket blasted past the atmosphere. National Geographic captured these moments along with more behind-the-scenes reactions of the tech mogul during launch day.
The exclusive Nat Geo footage was filmed in preparation for the second season of MARS — a documentary series returning to Nat Geo this fall. A camera crew followed Musk and his team on launch day to give viewers a first-hand account of how they were feeling during this much-anticipated event.
The Falcon Heavy was first slated to launch in 2013, but its maiden flight was delayed for five years. The booster is made up for three rocket cores — which are essentially three Falcon 9s bundled together. Its engines are able to generate over 5 million pounds of thrust at full capacity, enough to lift 141,000 pounds into orbit.
Musk was naturally at the edge of his seat during the test launch. The rocket is estimated to have cost $90 million to make and the CEO was quoted saying that it could just blow up in the blink of an eye.
But against all of the delays and nervousness surrounding the launch, the Falcon Heavy was successfully able to send Musk’s Tesla Roadster into space. Plus we get to see Musk’s reaction to all of this.
He was probably over the moon. (Sorry.)
