High Roller

By Phil Plait | October 10, 2008 8:30 am

Wanna see the coolest video set to music from a webcam attached to the very first privately owned company rocket that made it into orbit that you’ll see… well, ever?^*

Yes. Yes, you do.

Space X took the webcam video from their successful launch of the Falcon-1 rocket and set it to music. The result is made of awesome. The editing is a thing of wonder.

Hint: turn up your speakers.

And yes, you want the high-def version.

Now to go find me some Crystal Method disks…

Tip o’ the heat shield to my anonymous mole at Space X.

This is the same phrase I used to submit this to Fark, and it got greenlit! W00t!

CATEGORIZED UNDER: Cool stuff, Space, Video Blog

Comments (49)

Links to this Post

Flight of the Falcon 1 : Stochastic Scribbles | October 11, 2008

TheWalruss

Darn, I’m at work.
Guess what I’m doing as soon as I get home!
Yarrrrr!

October 10, 2008 at 8:46 am
DrNo

Very cool!!
The parabnormal crowd should love it too. All those ghosts floating around the camera lens just like web cams on earth.

October 10, 2008 at 9:11 am
Zippy the Pinhead

Great, except at one point they write “orbiting at 25 times the speed of sound”. They Might Be Giants said it best, “I heard they had a space program, when they sing you can’t hear (there’s no air)”.

October 10, 2008 at 9:13 am
madge

OMG what a ride! I love love love it! Thanks for this Phil

October 10, 2008 at 9:13 am
CL

Phil, you are correct sir…that was made of awesome. Thanks for sharing.

October 10, 2008 at 9:31 am
Carey

The shrinking island at liftoff was the awesomest!

October 10, 2008 at 9:33 am
pjb

I love how the second stage engine nozzle rings like a bell upon cutoff at around 3:17

October 10, 2008 at 9:41 am
kuhnigget

Way cool. Nasa should do this sort of thing. Way to get kids jazzed.

Dumb question: I always read that rockets firing in space produce no “flame.” Are the occasional burps of glowing “flame” you see coming out from the second stage engine just bits of the nozzles themselves getting fried, or is it red hot “exhaust” of some sort, or…?

Or is it glowing plasma of the sort that permeates the entire universe? : )

October 10, 2008 at 9:43 am
Danniel B.

That was possibly the most awesome thing I ever saw.

As for your question: The hydrogen IS being oxidized by the liquid oxygen, so I suppose you could call it a flame. People assume that there are no flames since there is no oxygen in space, but the rocket carries its own oxygen supply. Not sure if it still fits the definition, though.

October 10, 2008 at 9:53 am
Michelle

that’s the thing I love about being at work. I can shamelessly download 250mb in a couple minutes.

The video was amazing…. I love launch views like that.

October 10, 2008 at 9:56 am
Swede

Nice one, except for music i would have used something from the album “Leaving Home” by our local space-ambient talent Solar Fields, which is the soundtrack i will use whenever i leave this planet.

October 10, 2008 at 10:06 am
Erin

I loved watching the video the first time around, but this just made it cooler. I think it’s amazing that we can WATCH the trip into orbit. It blows my mind, and makes me wonder and anticipate where we go from here.

Crystal Method you say? *begins music hunt…*

October 10, 2008 at 10:11 am
fred edison

If you wanted seriously cool, you got it. These are the humble beginnings of a new and bold space age. It’s the privatization of space and one step closer for average men to touch the stars. I watch these awe-inspiring videos and I’m pleased to know its happening before my eyes. Godspeed to them all.

October 10, 2008 at 10:15 am
Joe Meils

50 years later than it should have been…

But finally, access to space is getting out of the hands of governments.

Yay!

October 10, 2008 at 10:35 am
jb

The only video better was able to watch it live! nothing like not knowing whether it would make it..and then thrill knowing it made it…
GO SPACEX!! next up..Falcon 9!!

October 10, 2008 at 10:45 am
Paul

That was the wickedest, coolest, most awesomest thing I’ve ever seen. It brought tears to my eyes. Gotta go. Gotta email the link to my son.

October 10, 2008 at 10:45 am
ioresult

The theme for the Bones tv show is from Crystal Method too. I always found it was out of place, but now I think I’m changing my mind about this group.

October 10, 2008 at 10:45 am
Peter Eldergill

Indeed the music was way cool

Pete

October 10, 2008 at 10:56 am
potterbro

Oh man… the stage separation combined with the music score shift sent chills down my spine!

October 10, 2008 at 11:04 am
BILL7718

Okay, I teared up a bit at the end there. I’ll admit it.

October 10, 2008 at 11:06 am
Will. M

I guess a repetitious theme strung out to an annoying, faaaaar toooo loooong length just doesn’t do it for me. I sure hope these folks are able to continue their so far successful program, though. Perhaps I’ll yet get a chance to experience at least one orbit of the planet. Of course, I’ll have to win the lottery first; but hey, that’s a small impediment.

October 10, 2008 at 11:08 am
Rhett Allain

I saw bubbles. It’s fake. Filmed underwater.

October 10, 2008 at 11:25 am
Tom Hill

kuhnigget-

What you’re seeing is occasional ‘burps’, likely some slight combustion instability.

Very cool stuff. Now on to Falcon 9!

October 10, 2008 at 11:26 am
Eli54

WOW.

and again;

WOW!

October 10, 2008 at 11:27 am
American Voyager

What else can you say? WOW!!!

October 10, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Fedaykin

The Crystal Method is a great group. Once you listen to their albums you’ll notice their songs are used *extensively* in commercials, soundtracks, trailers and other media.

The album “Vegas” (their initial offering) is absolutely fantastic and contains “High Roller”.

I can’t wait to get home so I can watch this!

October 10, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Sili

The weightless ice at the end was nifty?

October 10, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Sili

Whoops. No “?” at the end, please.

October 10, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Ian

At the 1:40 – 1:45 mark, right before the stage separation, what is causing the “spinning fan” effect from the boosters exhaust? (apart from it being filmed underwater by ghosts in a huge cover up )

October 10, 2008 at 12:46 pm
PhilB

Wow! Yeah, tears… chills, the whole works.

October 10, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Guysmiley

Highly recommend the Vegas album by Crystal Method (which actually is the one that has High Roller). The follow-up after that I didn’t like as much.

October 10, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Oded

Awesome video, really liked it!

But I have a question – Why is the quality on these videos STILL sub par with video compared to even 10 years ago? They are always so blurry and look like they were done with a regular $10 webcam… Are big HD cameras very difficult to put on a rocket/spaceship? Is that the problem?

Also, seeing how fuzzy it was when it came around, I assume that was because the video was transmitted live – what is the trouble with having the video always recording and use a memory stick?

Truely loved the video, just curious on these questions, on why high quality videos from these kind of things are non existent.

October 10, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Your Name's Not Bruce?

I liked how the second stage engine bell GLOWS on restart!Way cool!

October 10, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Reed

Cool video. But a nitpick: “Very first privately owned company rocket to reach orbit” is not correct. Orbital did that 18 years ago.

October 10, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Raymond Lang

Actually for around 10+ years now there has been a series known as Space Night which is broadcast on Bayereischer Rundfunk’s BR-Alpha channel in Germany that is nothing but footage of NASA and ESA missions set to techno and trance music. There are a few video clips floating about on YouTube (look for Earthviews) if you want to see for yourself.

I stumbled across the series quite a few years ago and fell in love with it.

http://www.br-online.de/br-alpha/space-night/ (for the website)

October 10, 2008 at 2:12 pm
The Chemist

Tears man! Tears and I’m not ashamed to admit it! That was teh awesome! Thankyouthankyouthankyou.

This reminded me of something less comparable, but similar in some ways : the opening credits for the anime series, Planetes.

October 10, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Cameron

247MB for the HD version…23 minutes remaining.

I’ll wait.

October 10, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Damon

That was pure amazing.

October 10, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Seamyst

Wow… that was awe-inspiring, in the best sense of the phrase. Goosebumps and all.

Shame that the HD version won’t play well on my older computer, but I’m saving it anyway!

October 10, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Rui Borges

Get me on one of these PLEASE!
…But bring back for dinner…

October 10, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Nentuaby

Zippy the Pinhead

You know, plenty of common units of measurement don’t mean much unless you mentally append “at STP.”

October 10, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Remek

Oded Says:

But I have a question – Why is the quality on these videos STILL sub par with video compared to even 10 years ago? They are always so blurry and look like they were done with a regular $10 webcam… Are big HD cameras very difficult to put on a rocket/spaceship? Is that the problem?

Bandwidth. They’re limited by the on-board S-band transmitter bandwidth, so it’s a tradeoff between medium resolution at acceptable video fps, or a higher resolution slideshow at only 1-2 fps.

October 10, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Oded

Thanks Remek!

I guess that’s a good reason, though it is still solvable… This still doesn’t rule out using a memory stick and bringing it back… But maybe that’s overkill.

I just really wish there was once a really high quality video of this

October 11, 2008 at 3:07 am
Paul A.

A few years ago I emailed NASA and asked them to put little cameras on everything and share the show with us. We were all raised on Star Wars level special effects and believe we respond well to seeing the real thing. I think there should be a camera pointing down at the earth on the ISS with a live webcam link on the Internet, a “What Is the Space Station Looking At” webpage.

October 11, 2008 at 1:57 pm
BethK

I thought it was cool, but my kids (13yo and 15yo both into space and astronomy) were ho-hum even when I explained that it was real and private enterprise rather than NASA. The music did nothing for any of us.

They did get excited that the Kp is high and that someone may be able to see aurora tonight. Probably not us, but with clear skies, we’ll probably go out star-gazing.

October 11, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Paul M

That was made of pure awesome…. one question though:
From about the 3:05 mark there is an arc protruding above the horizon – any ideas what that is?

October 12, 2008 at 12:19 am
Gordan

Paul M Says:
“From about the 3:05 mark there is an arc protruding above the horizon – any ideas what that is?”

Crud in the glass cover on the camera – either water droplets or some other debris, scattering light off the bright limb of Earth. You’ll notice it stays fixed w/respect the frame, but not w/respect to Earth which moves a bit in the frame.

October 12, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Doug Little

That was awesome, maybe the Top Gear guys need to redo the reliant rocket project using one of Spacex’s Engines! For those of you that aren’t familiar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIwXtRQQQZc

October 13, 2008 at 1:00 pm