Another one bites the dust...

 

If you said, "Queen, 1980," you get 25 bonus points.  Only 25?  Oh, quit your whining, that one was a gimme.  If you said, "What's a 'gimme'," you are even older than I am.  ;-)

I got out for a pleasant scooter ride today, even picked up the current "Scooter Tag."  No, that's not the "bites the dust" part - the Vespa and its rider returned home unscathed.

While out on the scoot, I got a text from Joan, letting me know that the SN9 rocket from SpaceX would be launching around 2:00pm.  What's that?  Yes, I can get texts while riding.  Hands free.  I decided to swing around and come back to watch the launch from our house.  There was a hold which delayed the launch about 25 minutes.

When it did get off, it is an interesting experience: with SpaceX about 4 1/2 miles from us, there is a delay between what you see and what you hear.  The launch...

 

All went well during the short flight (about 6 1/2 minutes)...
 

The above image is as the rocket started to hover.  Then, onto its side...

From there it was a controlled free fall until the engines fired again to get it into position for landing.  That's where something went wrong.  The rocket over rotated and...

Not the end to this flight that SpaceX was hoping for.  After SN8 ended in a fireball, I think there was hope they had that issue under control.  It appeared that something came apart when the engines fired up for rotation.  I'm sure we'll hear more about it in the coming days.

As you can see in the photo above, the next rocket (SN10) is being prepared.  It was not damaged.

After the SN9 launch and crash, I went back out on the scoot; thought I'd take a little jaunt up SPI.  Apparently, a huge number of people came to the island to watch the launch from the south end of SPI... the traffic coming up Padre Blvd looked like a Friday night during Texas Week in the middle of Spring Break.  I got off the main drag ASAP - Gulf Blvd and Laguna Blvd were pleasant, with very little traffic.

A lovely day - only in the 60s, but sunny and very light wind.  Nice day for some Vespa time and a rocket launch.