[cweese]

In the documentary “For All Mankind” they have some hi-res cameras in the flame trench to record the rockets firing for one of the Apollo missions. They replay it slo-mo in the film. Incredible sight!

[Menehune56]

Odd that they chose the name "Merlin" for the SpaceX rocket engine since that was the name of the legendary power plant used in the WWII Spitfire Fighter. The Wikipedia entry for the SpaceX Merlin makes no mention this. And neither does the SpaceX website. It's almost like they aren't aware of the name's history.

[G Larry]

” Vehicle Assembly Building.

The hangar can accommodate five Falcon 9 rocket cores at a time, according to SpaceX.”

Seems we had at least that many External Tanks hanging in their like drying sausage on the wall.

In ‘74 I worked for Boeing at Vandenberg AFB with Techs who’d built the VAB.

Later, I worked for Lockheed Martin West Coast Shuttle, then Titan IV as a Systems Engineer.

[Yo-Yo]

Onlookers at Kennedy Space Center reported visible venting of super-chilled liquid oxygen vapors from the rocket leading up to the static fire test, then a white cloud of rocket exhaust rushing out of the north side of the launch pad as the Merlin engines ignited at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT).

The "white cloud of rocket exhaust" was water from the sound suppression system being turned into steam.