Well, this is kind of adorable.
An intrepid space fan used a flying drone to reproduce a SpaceX rocket landing in miniature form. Two new videos show the tiny rocket coming in for a landing on a mockup of the private spaceflight company's drone ship floating in a swimming pool.
"The legs deploy in flight, and I've got a removable 'Flame' that can be attached," the YouTube description of a 30-second cut of the video says. "The Droneship is made from 1" insulation foam, and is built to the correct scale for the 1m tall rocket. It is a tiny landing pad, and give me even more respect for the amazing accomplishment that is landing the real one!"
(A longer cut of the video, above, shows some of the less-than-perfect touchdowns by the drone rocket.)
In real life, SpaceX has landed three rocket stages on its drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean and one more on solid ground back in Florida. But even SpaceX had to comment on the new drone video.
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The reusable rocket tests are designed to help reduce the cost of launching to space by using the same stage for different missions. SpaceX is planning to re-fly a landed stage before the end of the year.
