Elon Musk’s latest meme? $Banana (For Scale)

SpaceX on Wednesday rolled out the Starship rocket for its sixth test flight on November 19. Taking to X, the company shared pictures of the first stage of the rocket at the launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas. While Starship always draws awe and admiration from rocket fans, one special feature is all they can talk about this time.

MEME

It’s a banana sticker pasted near the flaps of the rocket stage as a nod to ‘banana for scale’ joke. The sticker shows a lively animated banana holding a tiny banana in its hand.

The “banana for scale” joke is a meme that began as a humorous way to show the size of an object by comparing it to a banana. The joke centers on the idea that a banana is a universally recognisable and relatively standard-sized object, so it can provide a rough sense of scale when no measuring tools are available.

Over time, it became an inside joke, often used ironically or with absurd items in contexts where a banana wouldn’t really help show scale effectively.

The “banana for scale” joke also became a popular way to show the size of rockets, spacecraft, or other massive objects, especially because rockets are notoriously difficult to conceptualise in terms of size from photos alone. By “measuring” rockets or spacecraft in terms of “bananas,” people can ironically highlight the absurdity of using such an imprecise object to describe something so large. Starship’s first stage measures 165 feet tall, and when mated with the Super Heavy Booster, it will stand nearly 400 feet tall.

This is just another instance showing how meme-lover SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is having fun with Starship. During a podcast with Joe Rogan, the billionaire said that he decided to make Starship pointy after watching the movie ‘The Dictator.’

MISSION

According to SpaceX, Starship will liftoff within a 30-minute launch window which will open at 3:30 am IST on November 19.

This mission will have the objective of catching the Super Heavy booster using a tower and testing a suite of heatshield experiments and maneuvering changes during Starship’s atmospheric reentry over the Indian Ocean.

Token info:

https://dexscreener.com/solana/3hMz2q9VWRPeNv8t77tg4htx8E41ametxb1Y1D3R8YiJ

Actually Twitter Post: https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1856424581948682324?s=19

Article: https://in.mashable.com/science/85188/spacexs-banana-for-scale-joke-on-starship-is-going-viral-what-does-the-sticker-mean

Will $Banana (for scale) go to Mars?