Whoomph. Standing nearly 5 kilometres from SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket as it took off for the first time, I felt like my lungs were exposed to the open air, the rushing sound and steam from the rocket’s engines squeezing my heart and making it beat off-kilter. People describe rocket engines as thunderous; despite the warm day and nearly cloudless sky, it was more like being inside the thundercloud.
I was at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and we’d been waiting through delay after delay all afternoon. There were powerful winds high in the atmosphere that could ruin the launch, and it seemed like they’d never die down. High winds are dangerous for rockets, even one as burly as Falcon Heavy.
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