That's one way to do it!
Happy Birthday
Rocket engines are great for blasting off into space. But what about getting ready for a party?
The team at Firefly Aerospace — that's one of the spacetech contractors NASA selected in 2018 to help it get back to the Moon — used one of its homebrewed rocket engines to try to light all those pesky candles on a birthday cake for its co-founder Max Polakov. The results were, well, about what you'd expect.
It’s Firefly co-founder Dr. Max Polyakov’s Bday! @maxpolyakov's passion and determination are driving forces in Firefly’s march to space. We salute his “Full Attack!” attitude toward life by taking a very aggressive approach to starting the birthday celebration! #HappyBirthdayMax pic.twitter.com/1sFI68OCSE
— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) June 30, 2020
Full Attack
The parts of the video in which employees pile praise on Polakov are awkward, but the sequence when they fire the engine is fun, especially because they set it up with a countdown like a real rocket launch.
The cake itself ends up as a hunk of charred rubble, burned beyond recognition. A single candle does remain lit at the end, though it seems likely that they put it there as part of the gag, because judging by the condition of the cake, it seems unlikely that it could have survived.
READ MORE: Firefly Aerospace uses rocket engine to light birthday candles in epic cake video [Space.com]
More on rockets: Amazing Vid Shows What You’d See If Rockets Were Transparent
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