--- 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 > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=6642c0c7-1709-4c36-a3ea-1ee29b299c27&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  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) ```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"}}]}] ```