If you missed the launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy today, put down your baked potato and nice red wine and watch this.  Trust me.

The launch today was from launchpad 39A at Cape Kennedy, made famous over 40 years ago when it was the setting of the Apollo missions to the Moon.  During those days, as a much younger El Jefe, I sat for untold hours watching on that crappy little 13 inch black and white television our effort to reach the stars.  At the height of the war in Vietnam, in which I fully expected to perish, our country was reaching beyond our atmosphere and gravity to touch another body in the heavens, the Moon.  The Moon missions transported me from the death and destruction on nightly television; indescribable even today, the emotion I felt during these missions carried me away from those dark days all the way through young adulthood.  I survived those times from two gigantic influences – out-of-control-ear-splitting rock-and-roll, and those thrilling missions to reach the moon.  I told you it was indescribable.

All of those memories came flooding back today when Falcon Heavy launched from the precise center of my youthful imagination.  Today, though, rather than carrying precious human lives of the past Apollo missions, atop that roaring machine was an icon almost more important – a symbol of modern society’s sense of adventure, technological development, and just a little bit of fun.  The payload for this ride was Elon Musk’s personal Tesla Roadster, complete with a mannequin, wearing SpaceX prototype spacesuit in the driver’s seat..  The passenger, dubbed Starman, will ride in the Tesla in an orbit around the Earth and Mars for all time.  And the great thing?  You can watch it live.  On YouTube.

Welcome to the New World.  Enjoy.  I am.