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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday July 25 2017, @05:19AM   Printer-friendly
from the it-is-rocket-science dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Developing rockets is difficult – even when those rockets use existing rocket boosters. Such is the case for SpaceX and the development of the Falcon Heavy. Once operational, Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful rocket in the world. While the path to its inaugural mission has been challenging, Elon Musk is urging caution surrounding expectations of the rocket's first flight, which is expected later this year from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

The long wait is nearly over as SpaceX readies for the final series of upgrades/modifications to LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center for the upcoming debut of the company's heralded Falcon Heavy rocket.

Designed as a souped up version of the Falcon 9 – which has enjoyed a great deal of fame and attention this year with the first (and now second) reflights of previously-flown core stages as well as lofting the first reused Dragon capsule on the CRS-11 resupply mission to the ISS – Falcon Heavy's initial design seemed simple.

But as Elon Musk stated at the keynote to the ISSR&D (International Space Station Research and Development) conference on Wednesday, "it ended up being way harder to do Falcon Heavy than we thought.

"At first it sounds really easy to just stick two first stages on as strap-on side boosters. But then everything changes."

Mr. Musk admitted, "We were pretty naive about that."

-- submitted from IRC


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Tuesday July 25 2017, @06:31AM (5 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Tuesday July 25 2017, @06:31AM (#544047) Journal

    We plowed this field just last week.

    What's new in this submission that warrants a rerun?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 25 2017, @07:36AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 25 2017, @07:36AM (#544062)

    Well you see we were 14 weeks away from the event last week. Now we're just 13 weeks away. Huge change.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 25 2017, @07:43AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 25 2017, @07:43AM (#544066)

      Huuuuuge!

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday July 25 2017, @07:43AM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday July 25 2017, @07:43AM (#544067) Journal

    Don't worry, I've submitted a real SpaceX article.

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    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Tuesday July 25 2017, @01:53PM

      by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 25 2017, @01:53PM (#544164)
      As opposed to a counterfeit SpaceX article from a factory in China?
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by davester666 on Tuesday July 25 2017, @08:11AM

    by davester666 (155) on Tuesday July 25 2017, @08:11AM (#544076)

    We're trying to keep up with Slashdot. Eventually, we hope to dup articles faster than them...