Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket has a meme with a banana on it that not everyone will understand: test yourself. Photo

Elon Musk's company has rolled the 50-meter-tall upper stage of the sixth Starship onto the launch pad at its Starbase in South Texas for testing ahead of the November 18 launch. And while Starship is always a rocket enthusiast, this time, all they can talk about is the banana.

On social network X, the company shared photos of the rocket's first stage, one of which is a close-up with a banana sticker near the rocket's flaps, as a hint at the "banana for scale" joke. The sticker depicts a live animated smiling banana holding a tiny replica of itself in its hand, Space.com writes.

The "banana for scale" joke is a meme that originated as a humorous way to show the size of an object by comparing it to a banana. The joke is based on the idea that a banana is a well-known and relatively standard object, so it can give a rough idea of scale when no measuring tools are available, explains mashable.com.

The "banana for scale" joke has also become a popular way to show the size of rockets, spaceships, or other massive objects, especially because rockets are notoriously difficult to visualize in terms of size from photographs alone. By "measuring" rockets or spaceships with "bananas," people can ironically emphasize the absurdity of using such an inaccurate object to describe something so large.

This is another example of how SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a meme enthusiast, has 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."

Obviously, this is a reference to the "banana for scale" joke that engineers and other aerospace professionals, including United Launch Alliance CEO Tori Bruno, like to make. Reddit.com also created a discussion with this sticker, captioning the post "SpaceX bananas are bigger than ULA bananas."

Users joined the game and left many of their own humorous comments:

"SpaceX engineer: "This is the average length and girth of bananas found at SpaceX" *all nodding in agreement* Totally!"

"Honestly, it would be very funny if SpaceX and ULA agreed on a standard banana. A quick way to recognize the level of Trouble"

"It is clear that there are 2 bananas"

"This is a metric banana. ULA used the imperial metric system"

As a reminder, Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. The vehicle consists of an upper stage – known as the Starship or simply "Ship" – and a huge first stage booster called Super Heavy. When these two elements are stacked one on top of the other, the rocket is about 122 meters high. Both Starship stages are designed to be fully and quickly reusable, which, according to SpaceX, will be a breakthrough that will open a new era of space flight and exploration.

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