Video: You can pretend to be disappointed every time SpaceX’s Falcon 9 crashes during a landing attempt, but deep down you know part of you wants to see an explosion. That’s why this video of a miniature flying SpaceX Falcon 9 drone is both awesome and disappointing, because there’s never going to be a fireball.
Created by Adam Woodworth, who was previously responsible for building a flying Return of the Jedi Speeder Bike replica, this Falcon 9 doesn’t carry any rocket fuel or other explosives on board, so there’s zero chance it will explode while touching down on its floating foam launch pad.
It’s instead powered by four tiny propellers, since it started out as a tiny quadcopter toy. Woodworth added the rocket’s fuselage, retractable landing gear and an optional flame attachment to make it appear more like a rocket in flight. From the right camera angle, without a house or Adam in the background revealing its scale, this rocket could almost pass as footage of the real Falcon 9 the next time something goes wrong and SpaceX doesn’t want anyone to know.