Just off the Jimmy Buffett Memorial Highway, the hotel’s rooftop bar is open late. The bartender passes out shots and turns Ozzy up. It’s 11:37 pm on a hot July night in Cape Canaveral, Florida, when our heads all swivel in the same direction. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket takes off, its orange plume glowing bright, about 12 miles due north up the Banana River. The “Iron Man” riff starts to blast.
It’s fun for the couple dozen of us there. When we hear the thud of the sonic boom, most everyone lets out some kind of hoot. But for Elon Musk, it’s just another Tuesday. This is SpaceX’s 95th