June is a big month for rocket launches

At T-minus two seconds, you’re leaning forward, your body as tense as a crossbow ready to be fired. The NASA Causeway, where anyone can view a rocket launch for R500 from across the Indian River, is about 10 kilometres from the launchpad, so you don’t hear anything when the 27 rocket engines on Spacex’s Falcon Heavy ignite. But you do see it: An enormous, billowing cloud on the horizon as five million pounds of thrust roar from a centre rocket and two boosters. After three seconds that feel more like 20, the rocket starts to slide slowly into the sky. A long tongue of flame behind it burns brightly enough to sting your eyes, even on a sunny day. There’s a deep rumble, but you can barely hear it over the crowd.

For all the violence and power of a launch, the first few seconds of flight are graceful and almost lazy. There’s time to take in the details: the gleam of the boosters, painted white to keep the cryogenic gas inside cool; the rippling orange taper of the 3 000plus Kelvin exhaust. The Falcon Heavy picks up speed as its sheds the weight of quickly burning fuel. A sound like ripped linen fills the air. At T- plus- one minute, experienced launch photographers near you call out “Approaching max- Q!” the moment when Falcon Heavy endures its peak stress from dynamic pressure. If it’s going to blow up, this is the moment.

You exhale as the launch continues, unaware you were holding your breath. The rocket is barely a speck in the sky now, with an arcing contrail and still-bright engine exhaust. Two empty fuel tanks that dropped from the rising rocket right themselves and steer back toward Earth. They drop like white meteorites, their flaring engines creating bright points of light. The pair slow to a near hover, snap open landing legs, and set down, a casual miracle under licks of retrorocket flame.

Just then, the sonic boom caused by the landing punches your eardrums and internal organs. While the launch may be done, the experience is not. Later that night, what you’ve witnessed overwhelms your thoughts. You stare into the immensity of the night. Typically, you may look up and feel insignificant. Tonight, you feel potential.