Not at all. I hate seeing nice trees cut down as well.

I would guess they took it down because of the HUGE crack in a large branch that you can see at the start of the video.....oh...I just read the description where they explain EXACTLY why they took it down, it was dropping branches after a lightning strike, almost hitting someone. That likely means the trunk was also weakened, and it was certainly close enough to take out that house.

I can relate. I (sadly) took down a 30-40 meter Douglas Fir tree in my yard a few years back. It's still painful to think about. My tree had grown too tall, and had a weakened root system because it was growing sideways out of a small hill, and had massive gopher activity all around it. All the surrounding trees on other properties were cut well before we moved here, so it was also exposed to full wind. I was terrified that it was going to come down through my bedroom and kill the wife and myself, or through a neighbors house, so we had it cut. I've spent the nearly 3 years since then digging out the root ball (which WAS as weakened as I had thought) and turning the hole into a large pond. I still hate that we had to kill the tree, but it was a safety issue. At least I have firewood for years to come, and a pond.

That is what we call XA 0.1. It can only hover for about 45 seconds when fully loaded with fuel. The fuel is liquid oxygen and isopropyl alcohol (i.e. 99% pure rubbing alcohol). This vehicle's purpose is to test plumbing, engines, gymbals and flight control systems before we scale up the airframe and tanks. This test is only showing one engine, though. Once it checks out we add the other three and then let it fly under a teather.

For those who were able to make it to the XPRIZE Cup Expo in Las Cruces this past October, this is the vehicle we had on display at our tent. This won't be our Lunar Lander Challenge entry since it is too heavy (by design).

The deflector you see burning through is made of three layers of laminated douglas fir 2x4s....