SpaceX’s Starship launched in South Texas, on Thursday — and exploded mid-air just a few minutes after doing so. For Jimmy Fallon, host of “The Tonight Show” on NBC, it was a bit like watching Ron DeSantis’ presidential hopes over the last few weeks.
The rocket, which Elon Musk and his team claimed was the most powerful rocket ever built, exploded while still visible in the atmosphere, though SpaceX claimed they themselves triggered the explosion, calling it “a rapid unscheduled disassembly”.
“Yeah it took off fast, was flying high, and then all of a sudden, it exploded — kind of like Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign,” Fallon mocked.
Of course, given Elon Musk’s apparent enthusiasm for 4/20, Fallon had another theory on what happened when the rocket blew up.
“At first when people saw the rocket light up and start smoking, they were like, ‘All right, happy 4/20 everybody! Yeah, we did it! That’s cool! Awesome, man,’” he joked.
Fallon also mocked SpaceX’s hope that Starship will eventually be able to take people to Mars, saying, “I think I speak for everyone when I say: Uh, you first.”
You can watch Fallon’s full monologue in the video above.
