321 LAUNCH Reviews

by Joei005

Very frustrating even for a free app. It’s a simple app. For a simulated launch, the user points the phone’s camera at a flat surface and on the phone’s screen, the user can view a launch as if the rocket is taking off from the flat surface at which the camera is pointed. However, 321LAUNCH never asked for permission to access my phone’s camera so all I see is a blue screen, instead of the flat surface at which my camera is pointed. Oh, well. It seems to be a rather gimmicky app anyway. I don’t know why it works for other people.

by Osugrad85

Ok, so I don’t have a brand new ipad. But, my ipad air 2 gets the job done. While I don’t expect to be able to take advantage of the AR aspect of 321LAUNCH, I would be able to watch launches live, EXCEPT THAT WHILE THE LIVE LAUNCH VIDEO IS PLAYING 321LAUNCH KEEPS GIVING ME AN ERROR MESSAGE ABOUT CALIBRATING MY CAMERA. If I could turn off the camera function of 321LAUNCH, I would love 321LAUNCH. It gives me prompt notification of pending launches and allows me to view the launch video live. BUT THE CAMERA ERROR POPUP EVERY 5 SECONDS MAKES WATCHING LIVE LAUNCH VIDEOS IMPOSSIBLE. Please give us a way to disable the camera so that those of us with older ipads can us 321LAUNCH to watch live launches.

by JadeumOfficial

I’m very interested in 321LAUNCH and it looks like an amazing and fun idea, except that whenever I try and use it, when you should see through the camera while scanning for a flat surface, I see nothing but a blue screen. I have an iPhone 6 which meets the system requirements and I also tried to work 321LAUNCH on my family member’s iPad Air, which also meets the requirements. But still, I can’t even scan for a flat surface, preventing me from using 321LAUNCH . I would love to see an update where this is fixed quickly, since it’ll help everyone out

by CreateNicknameReview

Besides being on time, having a small on the upper right corner and audio, 321LAUNCH is useless. The AR doesn’t doesn’t work, everything is pixelated and unless you’re in the middle of a launch, there’s nothing to do. I wanted to like this but it doesn’t meet the basic requirements of functionality on an app. I have no idea what team of people approved this but it’s pitiful. If anything, this ruined my rocket experience. Points for trying?

by Hintofsilence

This is a really neat concept, especially for people like me who have 150+ apps on their iPhone, but I found it to be lacking in certain areas, particularly for the fact that it’s not very intuitive. I found it to be a bit convoluted and even a bit confusing. There’s just too much going on, and the interface seems to defy conventional design practices to the point of being a bit obnoxious.

by Brentman1

Hello, developers so I loved 321LAUNCH for alerts on rocket launches but I few years ago 321LAUNCH stopped working and not giving me any more alerts it just kept saying “launches coming soon” and still to this day it’s like that and 321LAUNCH haven’t been updated 1y ago why did you guys abandon this very good app? I hope the developers will come back for more updates and fixes but for now I can’t really use 321LAUNCH 😢

by BitBytr

The audio track faded a little quickly in parts but otherwise the F9 AR experience was seamless on an iPhone X.

One moan (and I’ve noticed it in another app) and that is I prefer to hold my phone with the volume buttons and notch to the top and right: that is upside down for 321LAUNCH and it doesn’t autorotate. Annoying. I want the camera at the lower right (as looking at the screen) not top top left.

by Xilehence

This AR app is pleasant enough and educational. It’s too bad the engineers who wrote the script didn’t know how to spell the possessive form of “its,” but such a pedantic quibble shouldn’t distract from positive experience. I wonder how 321LAUNCH was authored (did they use Unity, ARKit, or some other framework?), and if there was some unexploited opportunity for spatial sound. Tx to USA Today, NASA, the ISS, and whomever.

by Stevo3985

321LAUNCH is very informative as it walks you through the preparations of the rocket assembly and pre-launch to launch phases of the rocket in AR, which also makes it pretty cool! I was especially interested to learn how exactly, in real life, the boosters manage to steer to land vertically (in the same orientation as it takes off) like some old 1960’s Buck Rogers TV show or something like that. It is really interesting to see the whole process from start to finish. The only thing I would add is a choice about whether to follow the first stage (booster) as it descends, or continue to follow the second stage and payload as they continue their journey to outer space. That would be really cool to see in AR (perhaps seeing stars and the outer atmosphere along the upper edge of the room that I am in as I use 321LAUNCH). Other than that, this is really worth downloading in my opinion, as a physics nerd who really enjoys this kind of stuff, and I haven’t even seen the live launches this is supposed to alert you to and keep you updated for when they arrive so you can watch in 321LAUNCH. How exciting! I’m glad that I downloaded it!

by Cricket 21

Very cool but I had a hard time figuring out how high to hold the camera from the horizontal surface. I suggest if you are short using something shorter than a kitchen table. Make sure you have about a 2’ square surface.
Looking forward to seeing more.

by 147583648

Skimming the store... have nothing to do... oooo... what’s this? A simulation... free? Cool! I’ll try! Opens app... Starts simulation... OMG this fantastic!

Seriously I loved 321LAUNCH! It is free ,though doesn’t have much to offer yet. The idea is fantastic being able to move my phone and look at the engines, capsule, and all the rocket freely was great. Then 321LAUNCH gave many intuitive facts, some I knew some I didn’t. Then I followed the Falcon 9 in flight, separates stages, etc. I am yet to see flights live (another great idea I’m going to geek out on). My only complaint is that you can’t skip the facts about the launch pad, since I played the simulation multiple times.
I highly recommend 321LAUNCH to nerds or non-nerds! Cannot wait for the Atlas V to be added.

by Saintmikeye

Thank you for making Space X come alive! Sharing this experience with my children and grandchildren will put into motion their excitement of space exploration. As a family we were fortunate enough to see the launch of space X mission on April 2nd at 4:30 PM. And experience none of us will ever forget. Keep up the great work!

by Josh"&$;@!?

I like that it gives me notifications for launches. Haven’t tried the AR part, but I just realized that you need to give 321LAUNCH access to your camera in order for it to work. Otherwise you will just see a blue/black screen as others have said. Don’t hate 321LAUNCH because you didn’t allow camera access!

by Aldo Otto

As a child of the 60’s & early 70’s, I grew up with Mercury and Apollo. If 321LAUNCH and related technologies had existed and were widely distributed in schools, there is no way to know how far along we would be in our exploration of space. I believe we would be much farther than we are now.

by Xaxor

I’m doing a research and presentation project for my physics class on Spacex in a few weeks and have been looking for something that will teach and involve the rest of my class and this is perfect. Shows and explains each step before and during launches! Can’t wait to explore this apps uses and functionality even more in the future. 👍

by Dorkman_pro

I love this kind of stuff, I’ve been interested in the space program for a year now and I have learned a lot more from 321LAUNCH than I already knew. I love 321LAUNCH so much that I just keep doing the AR launch over and over again. So developers, if you are even reading this, please make an app like this for the Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo program, it would be really cool!

by The Syruper

Just watched my first live launch in AR...and I am impressed. Yes the timing is a little off (~2-5 secs) and the graphics could be improved but this is one of the best examples of the potential of AR. I just watched a rocket launch into space in my living room on a handheld computer...could you have ever guessed you would be able to do that 10 years ago. Magic.

by Wtwolfe

321LAUNCH will be a hit with the entire family. I can hardly wait until I can watch a real launch in AR as it happens roughly 70 miles from my home. I will use 321LAUNCH again and again and will share it with others that are curious as to just how a Space X rocket actually operates throughout a launch in AR. Thank you for taking the time to make such an informative and entertaining app.

by LilMilo16

Although it’s an innovative application, I wish there was a way to not have to leave 321LAUNCH just to connect to Florida Now’s website. Importing the schedules and other information such as an RSS feed could greatly improve it. It would also be amazing if there were a way to view past launches in AR (sadly, yes, even the Challenger incident) with the recorded audio feed from Mission Control. This is a huge opportunity to go all out and put science in the hands of millions where it should be :)

by NY SWANK

I don’t understand how USA Today isn’t pouring more resources into 321LAUNCH. The 1st advertised live AR simulation launch never made it to the AR launchpad . Today’s Block V Falcon Launch happened in AR on 321LAUNCH , got scrubbed IRL. It was still very cool and exploited AR to it’s fullest. Pokémon go doesn’t do it for me :).

I’m a nerd, my wife not so much; but she was super interested in the rocket science with some great visuals provided by 321LAUNCH .
Great effort and job by the developers, the tech is all there I think it’s under supported. From kids to engineers, 321LAUNCH is simply awesome for all in every aspect. Give these devs a bonus and triple their budget !!! launches on tv are so last century :)