The Falcon Heavy's boosters burned for 154 seconds before they jettisoned into space. Free from the main body of the rocket, they spun 180 degrees and arced back towards the earth, burning their engines again as they descended to Cape Canaveral, to land, smoothly, improbably upright, within a second of one other.
Meanwhile, the main rocket pushed on, preparing to bring the world an even less credible sight. Four minutes into the flight, the nose cone broke apart to reveal its payload: a cherry-red electric sports car, with the top down, in space - a PR stunt for the ages.
It was all brought to you by Elon Musk, the South African-born billionaire entrepreneur and founder of Paypal, electric car company Tesla, and SpaceX, the manufacturer of the Falcon Heavy. The partly-reusable Heavy is the most powerful rocket on earth, and, if Mr Musk is to be believed, a stepping stone to a rocket to Mars.
The sports car in the nosecone was one of Mr Musk's own Tesla Roadsters. Its stereo was programmed to play David Bowie's Space Oddity on repeat as it travels for millions of years through space. Or until the battery dies, anyway.
"It's kind of silly and fun," he conceded, "but silly and fun things are important."