…gelachen, that is. Het kan ook zijn dat het de zenuwen zijn die spelen, maar ik kwam gewoon niet bij.

Achtergrond: Steve Eves heeft een 1/10 model van een Saturn V gebouwd. Dat ding is gelanceerd, en er is een filmpje van:

Het geheel stond gepost op MeFi, en daar stond ook deze omschrijving, met opvolgposten:

The launch area was cleared at 1:00. The announced said that Steve Eves was ready, the launch crew was ready, the rocket was ready and he was ready, so he started the countdown. The whole crowd counted along, because come on, you have to.

There was a tail of flame, a plume of smoke and a tremendous noise. The rocket lifted off beautifully, and soared into the sky as the crowd cheered. When it reached its apex, it split in two and deployed the parachutes, one on the nose cone and three on the main body. The crowd cheered again. The parachutes caught the wind and the rocket was carried over the crowd, across the road and into the opposite field, where it slowly descended for a perfect landing. The biggest cheer of all, this time. The launch had gone off without a hitch, and Steve Eves had broken the world’s record.

I’d estimate that the rocket traversed about 600 yards all told, and the flight lasted about three minutes from liftoff to touchdown. […]

It was an honor and a thrill to be present– quite literally, we witnessed history in the making. The subsequent fried flounder at Mrs. R’s Family Restaurant was just a bonus. If anyone has any specific questions about the launch, I’d be happy to answer.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:07 PM on April 25

That’s a pretty amazing video. The thrust to weight ratio of the model is much better then the actual rocket. The rocket gets off the pad pretty quickly.

They have to be pleased with this flight, it seems like they would be able to recover the rocket in perfect shape.
posted by jefeweiss at 6:49 AM on April 26

What about the kittens, were the kittens alive when they opened the hatch door?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:21 AM on April 26

THERE WERE NO KITTENS.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:54 AM on April 26

Liar! That’s an NSA coverup! The kittens were returned safely to earth, but were somehow… changed. Like they’d seen something up there, something unspeakable.

What terrors still live behind the eyes of those kittens?
posted by blue_beetle at 12:56 PM on April 26

But the wave particle said there was a high probability of kittens!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:59 PM on April 26

You guys are idiots. The description said they had flounder in the capsule.
posted by digsrus at 1:51 PM on April 26

THE FLOUNDER WAS DELICIOUS.
posted by Faint of Butt at 2:39 PM on April 26

That wasn’t flounder.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:53 PM on April 26