Most people don’t know this yet...

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is one of the most autonomous orbital rockets flying today

Once it lifts off, controllers basically just watch - the rocket runs fully autonomously

But here’s the part that surprises people: It doesn’t use AI

The autonomy comes from incredibly well-engineered traditional software + advanced math (convex optimization), refined over hundreds of Falcon 9 flights. After the final human “go”, the rocket’s deterministic systems handle everything:

→ Liftoff & Ascent: Guided by closed-loop control systems

→ Stage Separation: Executed via strict, sensor-based triggers

→ Booster Landing: The G-FOLD algorithm calculates the optimal path to a moving droneship in milliseconds

→ Payload Deployment: Complex orbital maneuvers with zero human input

→ Autonomous Flight Termination (AFTS): It can even detect if it’s going off-course and destroy itself without ground control

All of this is powered by brilliant human engineering, flawless code, and hyper-accurate sensors. Zero neural networks

We are watching the greatest aerospace engineering team on Earth flexing their skills