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posted by martyb on Tuesday February 06 2018, @09:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the it-IS-rocket-science dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday February 06 2018, @10:18PM (4 children)

    by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday February 06 2018, @10:18PM (#634132)

    They were awesome! Their amps went to 12!

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 06 2018, @11:34PM (3 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 06 2018, @11:34PM (#634180) Journal
    Reminds me of a criteria for the quality of the engineer. A client wants you to take their sound system to 11. The mediocre engineer just does it by changing the markings on the sound dial as demanded. The good engineer explains to the client why a dial going to 11 doesn't make the sound system any louder. And the great engineer? "For $3000, I can take your dial to 12."
    • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday February 07 2018, @04:43AM

      by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday February 07 2018, @04:43AM (#634293)

      "For $3000, I can take your dial to 12."

      That and I'll sell you oxygen-free cable too. Because it sounds better.

      BTW, there are guitar amp brands that go to 11 and 12. Kind of like launching your beautiful red roadster into solar orbit. Because why not.

    • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday February 07 2018, @09:17AM (1 child)

      by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 07 2018, @09:17AM (#634341)
      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday February 07 2018, @11:16AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 07 2018, @11:16AM (#634367) Journal
        Interesting. I thought I had read the quip on SN so I didn't think to look for it elsewhere. Of course, I didn't find it.