Is sheltering in place getting old?

Here. Leave the planet, while relaxing in your comfy seat at home! (Don’t forget about gravity, though . . . it hasn’t forgotten about you.)

This first, old-school video was referenced in an article I was reading tonight; their embed doesn’t work, but here is a working version. Be sure to have the headphones on:

“I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth . . . wait.”

And here’s how they do the landing today. (Somehow, just reading about these things in the news doesn’t have the emotional impact of watching it happen up close and from a “passenger” viewpoint — it’s amazing how far human spaceflight has advanced today, this after a Space Shuttle technology that was already way ahead of the Apollo program’s!)

Here is a video of an previous launch. It has voice-over that explains what we’re seeing (the on-board shots come later in the video) and fun sounds from lots of very excited, very happy rocket scientists in the background.

Featured image: Left: NASA via Rawpixel Ltd., CC BY 2.0/Right: Space X Photos via Wikimedia, public domain