NASA’s rocket engine fireplace video is eight hours of Artemis engines blazing away.
It’s time to gather around a digital fire and celebrate the holidays in style with a Yule log video. But this isn’t just any old Yule log. The official NASA Yule log video stars four RS-25 rocket engines blazing away inside a fireplace.
NASA released its animated rocket engine fireplace video on Nov. 26, just in time for Thanksgiving. The scene is a cozy one with a stone fireplace, a basket of wood, a pillow and framed images paying tribute to NASA’s Artemis program and the uncrewed Artemis I mission that traveled to the moon and back in 2022.
The video is eight hours long, so you can set it to play and it should last through even the lengthiest holiday meal. The soundtrack consists of a low rocket-engine roar with the crackling and popping of a more traditional Yule log fire. It’s very soothing. “Technically, this fireplace packs the heat of four RS-25 rocket engines and a pair of solid rocket boosters—just enough to get you to the moon,” NASA wrote in the video description. “And get through the holidays with your in-laws.”
NASA’s RS-25 is a beast
Artemis I left Earth with a lift from NASA’s Space Launch System, an absolute unit of a rocket. The rocket’s RS-25 engines trace their lineage to the space shuttle era. “It is one of the most tested large rocket engines in history, with more than 3,000 starts and more than 1 million seconds of total ground test and flight firing time,” NASA said in an explainer. The engines can also easily power eight hours’ worth of fireplace footage.
Each RS-25 engine is a beast. Here’s a truck for scale.
Video is the safest way to experience an RS-25. If you pointed four of those bad boys at an actual fireplace, you would thoroughly cook it and everything around it. “During launch over 700,000 gallons of liquid propellant will exit the nozzle at temperatures in excess of 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit,” NASA explained. That would pretty much vaporize your cockles.
Yule logs go digital
YouTube has quite the stash of unusual Yule log videos. Comics juggernaut DC has a 10-hour Yule Log video featuring a Superman logo burned into one of the logs. Clothing retailer L.L. Bean made a “Yule Dog” video starring a cute canine napping in front of a crackling fire. Streaming services have their versions. Netflix’s video is called “Fireplace for Your Home.”
Real Yule logs date back into history and once involved burning a huge log in a hearth. “Historians believe the tradition was derived from pagan worship rites, representations of health and fertility, rituals asking for blessings and protection, festivals celebrating the winter solstice, or was simply for decoration and practical use,” the United States Forest Service said in a guide to plants associated with winter solstice.
Not everyone has a hearth or fireplace, so the digital version of a Yule log comes in handy for anyone looking to evoke some festive feelings. NASA’s take on the genre is a humorous addition to the digital Yule log catalog. It’s all the fire and fun of rocket engines with none of the face-melting heat.