SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Speaking at the International Space Station Research and Development conference, Elon Musk said that a successful maiden flight for Falcon Heavy was unlikely:
SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk has downplayed the chances of a successful inaugural flight for his Falcon Heavy space launch vehicle, admitting there is a "good chance it would not make it to orbit in its first launch."
Development of the booster rocket, which is powered by 27 engines, has proven to be "way harder than the team initially thought," he told the International Space Station Research and Development conference on Wednesday.
Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful rocket booster in the world, capable of delivering a 54 ton payload into orbit.
Musk said that combining three Falcon 9 rockets together had multiplied vibrations throughout the vehicle making it difficult to test without a launch.
The maiden test flight is due to take place toward the end of the year.
As if watching the inaugural launch of the most powerful rocket since the Saturn V were not tempting enough, how many more people will watch in hopes of seeing it go BOOM!?
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Thursday July 20 2017, @09:11PM (1 child)
I first thought of the N1 also. Technology also will be enabling beyond just quality control: a purely analog control scheme for that many engines sounds like a horrible nightmare. Glancing over the Wikipedia article the Soviets might have agreed, the N1 originally used the KORD (Russian acronym for KOntrol Racketnykh Dvigateley—literally "Control (of) Rocket Engines") but it was unable to compensate for the exploding turbopump of the second launch attempt. The last launch actually used the first digital control system employed by a Soviet rocket, the S-530, mitigating some of the deficiencies of the KORD.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Saturday July 22 2017, @02:16PM
Indeed. Not to mention the apparently considerably more robust components enabled by 3D printing and modern material science. And SpaceX has the benefit of a *much* more responsive digital control system than the S-530, one with dozens of smaller-scale launches informing it's design.