Elon Musk Shares SpaceX Blooper Reel: ‘How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster’ (Video)

“Well, technically it did land … just not in one piece,” CEO says of one failed attempt

If this whole rocket launching and getting humanity to Mars business doesn’t work out, Elon Musk at least has a future in deadpan comedy.

The SpaceX CEO shared a blooper reel on Thursday showing the company’s many failed rocket landings — and his running commentary over them is half of the fun.

“It’s just a scratch,” Musk said at one point, looking over the steaming wreckage of a destroyed aircraft.

Musk had a few more zingers from the approximately two-minute clip. As another rocket crashes and burns: “Well, technically it did land… just not in one piece,” he quipped.

When another vessel billows smoke and flames after landing in the ocean: “Look, that’s not an ‘explosion.’ It’s just a rapid unscheduled disassembly.” That’s top notch rocket scientist humor.

Altogether, the video shows SpaceX’s Falcon 9 failing to land more than 10 times, starting with an ill-fated launch in Sept. 2013. Adding the uplifting marching music of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” gave the video a nice touch, too.

The good news for Musk and SpaceX, though, is that it wasn’t all in vain. The Falcon 9 has been landing safely for more than a year now, making history as the world’s first “reusable rocket.”

Musk added a little recap to the video with his Instagram caption as well. “The sordid history of how the @SpaceX Falcon 9, the first fully reusable, orbit-class booster rocket, eventually managed to land in one piece and stay that way,” Musk said. “Maybe Falcon realized it still loved us or finally read the instructions.”

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