[HD 4K] For All Mankind - Sea Dragon Rocket Launch

At the massive dimensions of 150 m (490 ft) long and 23 m (75 ft) in diameter, Sea Dragon would have been the largest rocket ever built.

The Sea Dragon was a 1962 conceptualized design study for a two-stage sea-launched orbital super heavy-lift launch vehicle. The project was led by Robert Truax while working at Aerojet, one of a number of designs he created that were to be launched by floating the rocket in the ocean. Although there was some interest at both NASA and Todd Shipyards, the project was not implemented.

Song: Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Sourced from For All Mankind Episode 10 on Apple TV+

[baldeagle]

When Congress accidentally adds a few extra 0’s on nasa’s budget.

[HieronymousLex]

For those who didn’t know, this was a real plan that was considered. It would be manufactured in a shipyard, and launched from sea because it would destroy any launch pad built for it and the sound waves would tear the rocket apart.

[justicegutierrez]

Just imagine being one of the sailors in that carrier group if this was real life, would be such a sight to behold

[saturnv]

For those who did not study the actual design of Sea Dragon, this is feasible but perhaps with even higher cost than the Shuttle. Because it required a nuclear powered carrier to operate as an electrolysis source to produce liquid hydrogen/oxygen onsite, due to them being very hard to store on ships. 
The original design study even featured CVN-65 on its cover.

[alecgriffiths]

Who also keeps watching this over and over again?

[TBone-bzmp]

When you wanna colonize the entire solar system in one go.

[mikolajschulz]

When you get bored in Kerbal Space Program

[bengiordano]

The most insane part is that the sea dragon was almost a reality

[neup]

I've watched this probably 50 times, lol. So effing good. And unexpected. I had wandered away from the TV when the credits started and then heard voices and just wow. Awesome scene.

[inactive]

Britain when they hear that there's tea on every single planet in the solar system

[wefuntw]

I watched this over and over, thinking how glorious human race could be in 2020, if this really happened in 1983.

[ryderdonahue]

I don't know what I just watched. But I liked it!

[spazotron]

4 years later and this is still one of the greatest videos on YouTube

[cranklabexplosion-labcentr]

"That's why they're launching it in the middle of the ocean, Karen"

Karen: *snappy Karen sounds*

[CKalitin]

That's an Amazing animation of Sea Dragon. That really puts into perspective how big it would have been.

[Dill_Pixel]

0:37 "Aww, this rocket is tiny"
0:43 "Holy, this rocket is actually big!"
0:46 "GOD, THIS ROCKET IS HUGE!"
0:49 "Alright, it's finally launching"
0:53 "HOLY, DID IT JUST EXPLODE!?"
0:57 "GOOD GOD THAT IS A BIG ROCKET"

[marloyt]

Technically, in real-life plans, the carrier was there to charge the ocean around the rocket and not just primarily there for security.

[rocketmentor]

There are some discrepancies from an actual Sea Dragon, i.e. the water line is below the 4 vernier engines, 60000 LbF, burn LOx/Hydrogen with a transparent flame like the Shuttle main engines did, and they keep burning all the way to stage 2 MECO or LEO, the first stage 80 Million LBF engine burns LOx/Kerosene which makes no smoke. I worked with Bob Truax from 1973 until his death in 2010 and Bob would of loved this video, it's great, thank you for making it - Ken

[natemadill]

I think it's cool that not only was the sea dragon considered but actually feasible as a design

[RedSiegfried]

Reminds me of Heinlein's torchships. In his stories they were an almost 100% mass to energy conversion and they had to launch them from the middle of the ocean and limit how big they made them to prevent damage to the environment, but they did a lot anyway. Moving at close to the speed of light, the first explorers only aged 2-3 years and many of them died from the hardships of space exploration, while a lifetime passed on Earth and they invented spacecraft that could catch up to them and bring them back home in a single day.