Skip to main content

SpaceX made a Pokémon Go joke at the end of its rocket launch broadcast

SpaceX made a Pokémon Go joke at the end of its rocket launch broadcast

/

Oh, like you haven't been doing the exact same thing

Share this story

SpaceX just launched and landed another Falcon 9 rocket, the fifth time the company has pulled off the feat. But this launch was different from the others — not because it was the second time the company landed a rocket back at Cape Canaveral, and not because the company was helping to deliver a crucial docking adapter to the International Space Station. This, my friends, was the first time SpaceX broadcasted a rocket launch in the post-Pokémon Go era, and the company did not waste the opportunity.

Right before the very end of the rocket launch broadcast, a cartoon version of the company's Dragon capsule appeared on the screen, surrounded by the Pokémon Go interface that many of us are now oh so familiar with. All three hosts mocked swiping pokéballs at the spacecraft until the video feed cut off. It was a decent gag, or at the very least it was no worse than the myriad jokes the rest of the internet has been making over the last two weeks. (If you listen closely, you can hear one of the hosts celebrate the gag a bit early. "That was money," he says, just before the broadcast really ends.)

By the way, the Dragon spacecraft apparently has a CP of 2024. You know, the same year that Elon Musk says SpaceX will send the first humans to Mars.