SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Update: Launch seems to have been successful. The two side boosters landed nearly simultaneously. Footage from the drone ship was cut off. The car made it into space; but the third stage will need to coast through the Van Allen radiation belts for around six hours before it makes the final burn for trans-Mars injection.
Update 2: The middle booster of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket failed to land on its drone ship
Falcon Heavy Post-Launch Media Briefing - Megathread
SpaceX's newest rocket, the Falcon Heavy, is set to be launched at around 1:30 PM EST (6:30 PM UTC) today. The launch window extends to 4:00 PM EST (9:00 PM UTC).
SpaceX will attempt to recover all three boosters during the launch. The two previously-flown side boosters will attempt to land nearly simultaneously at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Landing Zones 1 and 2. The center core will attempt to land on a drone barge hundreds of miles off the coast of Florida.
The dummy payload for the Falcon Heavy is Elon Musk's personal 2008 Tesla Roadster. It is carrying a mannequin wearing SpaceX's space suit flight suit that will be used when the company begins to send astronauts to the International Space Station. The car will be launched into a heliocentric orbit that will bring it close to Mars (and back near Earth) periodically, and is equipped with three cameras. Its stereo system will be playing David Bowie's Space Oddity.
If the launch is successful, the Falcon Heavy could be flown within the next 3 to 6 months for a customer such as the U.S. Air Force, Arabsat, Inmarsat, or ViaSat.
Falcon Heavy will be capable of launching 63,800 kg to low-Earth orbit (LEO), 26,700 kg to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO), 16,800 kg to Mars, or 3,500 kg to Pluto (New Horizons was 478 kg). It will supplant the Delta IV Heavy, which is capable of launching 28,790 kg to LEO or 14,220 kg to GTO. Space Launch System Block 1 will be capable of launching 70,000 kg to LEO (Block 1B: 105,000 kg to LEO, Block 2: 130,000 kg to LEO).
Musk has suggested that an additional two side boosters could be added to Falcon Heavy (perpendicularly?) to make a "Falcon Super Heavy" with even more thrust. This may not happen if SpaceX decides to focus on the BFR instead, which as planned would be able to launch 150,000 kg to LEO while being fully reusable and potentially cheaper than the Falcon 9 (or capable of launching 250,000 kg to LEO in expendable mode).
The webcast can be seen here or directly on YouTube.
- BBC: Elon Musk's huge Falcon Heavy rocket set for launch
- CNN: SpaceX Falcon Heavy: Everything you need to know
- Bloomberg: Musk Sets a Low Bar for SpaceX Launch
- Space.com: Is the Tesla Roadster Flying on the Falcon Heavy's Maiden Flight Just Space Junk?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @01:38PM (10 children)
Why send boring concrete when you can send a car! I love it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:02PM (2 children)
Yeah, if you've got F-you money like Musk, why not do it occasionally.
Assuming the cameras and stereo are running off the original Roadster battery pack, how long will they stay on?
(Score: 5, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:43PM
In space, no one can hear your car stereo.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by moondrake on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:29PM
I think I heard him say "about 12 hours" in the press conference.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @05:43PM (3 children)
I would have sent a Yugo.
(Score: 5, Funny) by bob_super on Tuesday February 06 2018, @05:48PM (1 child)
Should Aliens encounter the car is the middle of nowhere, would you like them to think we have decent taste, or is it preferable to have the plausible deniability that we wouldn't target them with such an ugly thing as a Yugo?
There are tradeoffs, for sure.
Musk chose to have the fun of claiming his company built the fastest car anywhere.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday February 06 2018, @08:36PM
A somewhat more creative dilemma would be do we launch a life size statue of jar jar binks, or a really nicely painted army of warhammer 40K minis?
Whats a bigger war crime, "It would be a shame if our Necron army awoke on your planet..." vs "let me give you the good news of our lord and savior jar jar binks" I would definitely drive my car to Mars orbit to avoid that trial, either way.
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Tuesday February 06 2018, @10:21PM
Yugos are not safe!
(Granted, it's an unmanned mission, but it's best to start off with a good safety culture.)
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday February 06 2018, @07:15PM
Though he could send Boring [boringcompany.com] concrete if he wanted to.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 5, Funny) by richtopia on Tuesday February 06 2018, @08:23PM (1 child)
Watch out: the documentary Heavy Metal prophesized a Corvette bringing the evil Loc-Nar to earth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Metal_(film) [wikipedia.org]
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fhistoriasdelmetaverso.files.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F03%2Fheavy1.jpg&f=1 [duckduckgo.com]
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Tuesday February 06 2018, @09:25PM
it's perfectly clear it's already here. Stock market dropped 666 points the other day.