If you’re not familiar with rocket science, the question in the title may seem confusing. Let me first assure you that human flesh does not make for good rocket fuel (I checked). However, based on the physics of how rockets launch themselves into space, there is a way that The Flash could become a one-man SpaceX. The only limit would be his top speed.

In my latest Because Science, I’m tackling this clever question sent to me via Twitter. Rocket science is held up as the field that exemplifies how difficult science can be, but at its core is a very simple principle. It comes down to Newton’s third law of equal and opposite reactions. To take off upwards, rockets have to throw a lot of mass away from themselves very quickly downwards. If it happens fast enough they get into orbit.

But what if Flash took the place of fuel? We would have to figure out how quickly his 88 kilograms has to run out the back end of a rocket in order to give the craft escape velocity (at least), or the idealized velocity needed to break the chains of Earth’s gravity. So check out the video above to see if that speed is within the bounds of the almighty Speed Force. It’s exactly rocket science.

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