--- title: Elon Musk Is Using a Party Balloon For a Rocket Launch description: The SpaceX CEO outlined a plan for a rocket launch that will involve a "giant party balloon" and a "bouncy house" for scientific reasons. canonical: https://time.com/5241441/elon-musk-party-balloon/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-04-16T14:58:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:52:11.487Z og:title: Elon Musk's Latest Space Plan Sounds Like Quite a Party og:description: The SpaceX CEO wants to use a "giant party balloon" and a "bouncy house" og:url: https://time.com/5241441/elon-musk-party-balloon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Elon Musk's Latest Space Plan Sounds Like Quite a Party twitter:description: The SpaceX CEO wants to use a "giant party balloon" and a "bouncy house" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Elon Musk's Latest Space Trick Involves a Party Balloon and a Bouncy House  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Apr 16, 2018 2:58 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Apr 16, 2018 2:58 PM UTC Balloons and bouncy houses are not just for kids anymore. In a series of tweets, SpaceX CEO [Elon Musk](http://time.com/5212921/elon-musk-deletes-facebook/) called out the popular party accoutrements as components in his plan to reuse rocket parts after a launch. “This is gonna sound crazy, but… SpaceX will try to bring rocket upper stage back from orbital velocity using a giant party balloon,” Musk wrote. “And then land on a bouncy house.” Although his choices might sound ridiculous at first, there’s actually scientific rationale behind the whole thing: a balloon can help safely stabilize and slow down the discarded rocket part even at high speeds. And the bouncy house provides a soft landing spot for the it to fall into once it reaches earth. [SpaceX](http://time.com/5225670/spacex-space-junk-cleaner-launch/) has proved itself to be interested in reusing its rocket pieces as often as it can, and this plan is just one more way to turn space travel into a more efficient affair. The next SpaceX [launch](http://time.com/5187464/spacex-50th-falcon-9/) is planned [for Monday night](https://www.wired.com/story/spacex-tess-nasa/), assisting NASA with setting the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite into motion on its two-year journey [to find exoplanets](https://www.space.com/40309-spacex-nasa-tess-exoplanet-launch-webcast.html) that we might want to spend more time exploring. > [](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/985655249745592320) In the meantime, people are excited about Musk’s festive approach to space travel. > [](https://twitter.com/shiralazar/status/985716521434427392) > [](https://twitter.com/TheRichlatino/status/985737668553269248) > [](https://twitter.com/acid0/status/985696363374694400) > [](https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/985699367410651142) > [](https://twitter.com/TheSteffie/status/985692444292509696) And some want to help out, too. > [](https://twitter.com/QuinnKupec/status/985736260827471872) Elon Musk Is Using a Party Balloon For a Rocket Launch ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5241441/elon-musk-party-balloon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5241441/elon-musk-party-balloon/"},"headline":"Elon Musk's Latest Space Trick Involves a Party Balloon and a Bouncy House","datePublished":"2018-04-16T14:58:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:52:11.487Z","description":"Party on, Musk","url":"https://time.com/5241441/elon-musk-party-balloon/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Space","Elon Musk"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5241441/elon-musk-party-balloon/","name":"Elon Musk's Latest Space Trick Involves a Party Balloon and a Bouncy House"}}]}] ```