Another Exciting Thing

This actually happened before the Draco thruster firing that I posted about earlier, but is in some ways cooler.  It's full mission duration firing of the cluster of 9 Merlin engines that are soon going to lift the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster from the shores of Florida to low earth orbit.  It's exciting for a lot of the same reasons as the Draco firing; it's a fully private endeavor that will be able to put a whole lot of equipment, cargo, or even crew into space, and is likely to be able to do it before NASA will.  

What's also cool about this particular test is that it was done in the dead of night in rural Texas, and boy did it wake the neighbors!  SpaceX followed the law and notified who they were supposed to, but people in nearby towns didn't get the message and were woken up by the thunderous tumult.  I'm sure it was disturbing, but I still would've loved it.