VFX Artist Reveals How Big SpaceX Rockets Really Are!

Rockets are BIG. But no one seems to really know just how big these rockets are. And that's because any time we're shown these rockets, they're always just kind of like by themselves or flying through the air or next to a big building or even on a big boat. You rarely get a good opportunity to get some visual context for how friggin' big these rockets are. For instance the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is 230 feet tall... But what does that mean?! So today I'm going to show you what you'll never get to see in real life. Using visual effects I'm going to put these rockets in everyday places, so that we can all gain a better appreciation of the scale of these giant bottles that fly into space. To begin, let's take a look at the Falcon 9 landing legs here. And in pictures and videos they seem kind of dinky like maybe they're about this big or so whereas in reality they're 29 feet in length and when unfolded from the wall they will reach out 24 feet and to put that into perspective: our ceiling is only 17 feet tall. These legs literally do not fit in our studio and this begins to give you a sense of scale. So like I said, the Falcon 9 rocket is 230 feet tall meaning that it's about the height of a 21 story building, but the roof that I'm standing on right now is only seven stories tall. That puts me about a third of the way up the rocket and it just keeps going up. And this isn't even the biggest rocket that SpaceX makes. They have a more powerful one called the Falcon Heavy. Which is basically just three Falcon nines put together. So it's the same height, but way more powerful! So far they've only had a single test flight famously putting a Tesla Roadster out into the asteroid belt to orbit the Sun for the next billion or so years and because these rockets are so tall they appear to be kind of thin but as usual when you start getting closer to them their size becomes apparent, because they are 12 feet in diameter. I could literally stand on top of myself and still fit on the inside of one of these rockets. But here's the thing SpaceX is developing a much much larger rocket, because they need something that can go really far into space But also carry a lot of weight while they're doing it; like to Mars like a colony to Mars. So that's what they're making next: the BFR. Which stands for Big Falcon Rocket, because it's really Falcon big. At 348 feet tall the BFR is taller than the Statue of Liberty. Even if you were to lay the Falcon Heavy sideways on top of the Statue it still wouldn't be as tall as the BFR. This rocket is truly massive. With a 30 foot diameter it's as wide as a London bus is long. I mean just look at the fuel tank that's gonna sit in the upper spaceship part of the rocket. As of mid 2018 this rocket doesn't technically exist yet except for the drawing board and in CG renderings like this. But this is it. This is what its gonna look like. In fact, I believe they want to get this up and flying within three years, maybe six years definitely. And as big as these Rockets are we may someday see rockets that are even larger. I mean the BFR is still not as large as the Saturn 5 rocket which took us to the moon. And we built that 50 years ago! In the end I just find it crazy that these structures are some of the fastest vehicles humanity has ever made, because going into space is not just simply a matter of going up. It's a matter of going up and then sideways so fast, that you just continue to fall around the earth. And those speeds are 17,000 miles an hour. At sea level that is Mach 22. Thanks for watching this video it was a pretty fun experiment to make and if you liked it I think I might try making more of these. In the meantime try sharing this video with your friends and asking them first how big that they think rockets are because I'm willing to bet they're gonna underestimate it. If you're new here try subscribing to the Corridor Crew. We got all kinds of crazy cool content coming your way from DIY builds to cool science experiments like this to the old-school behind-the-scenes content that you've always loved and enjoyed!

Channel: Corridor Crew

Views: 3,330,924

Keywords: sam and niko, corridor, corridor crew, SpaceX, elon musk, Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, BFR, rocket, tesla, vfx, science, science fiction, scifi, space, space travel, big, giant, theory, smarter every day, vsauce, bill nye

Id: dlo3rBFDLug

Length: 3min 54sec (234 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 19 2018