Staring at Firefly Aerospace’s hot rocket-engine flames in a Texas pasture

Pro tip: If you just want to see the raw engine fire, skip ahead to the ~3:15 mark. (video link)

CEDAR PARK, Texas-"Last time you came out here, it was just a pile of dirt," Firefly Aerospace CEO and rocket scientist Tom Markusic tells me. I looked it up afterwards-he's not lying. Back in 2014 when Ars Senior Editor Lee Hutchinson traveled just north of Austin to visit Markusic's then-infant new space company, he essentially got a rocket science lesson (charts and everything) and walked the patch of non-grass where the company would one day build its engine testing facilities. It looked like this...

Lee Hutchinson

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