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SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket seems to be a hit with satellite companies
When the Falcon Heavy rocket launched for the first time in February, some critics of the company wondered what exactly the rocket's purpose was. After all, the company's Falcon 9 rocket had become powerful enough that it could satisfy the needs of most commercial customers. One such critic even told me, "The Falcon Heavy is just a vanity project for Elon Musk."
[...] Last week, the Swedish satellite company Ovzon signed a deal for a Falcon Heavy launch as early as late 2020 for a geostationary satellite mission. And just on Thursday, ViaSat announced that it, too, had chosen the Falcon Heavy to launch one of its future ViaSat-3 satellite missions in the 2020 to 2022 timeframe.
[...] In explaining their rocket choice, both Ovzon and ViaSat cited the ability of the Falcon Heavy to deliver heavy payloads "direct"—or almost directly—to geostationary orbit, an altitude nearly 36,000km above the Earth's surface. Typically, rockets launching payloads bound for geostationary orbit drop their satellites into a "transfer" orbit, from which the satellite itself must spend time and propellant to reach the higher orbit. (More on these orbits can be found here).
[...] The demonstration flight of the Falcon Heavy apparently convinced not only the military of the rocket's direct-to-geo capability but satellite fleet operators as well. The Falcon Heavy rocket now seems nicely positioned to offer satellite companies relatively low-cost access to orbits they desire, with a minimum of time spent getting there in space.
See also: SpaceX heading to two to four Falcon Heavy paid launches per year
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NASA's Chief of Human Spaceflight Rules Out Use of Falcon Heavy for Lunar Station
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Could Launch Japanese and European Payloads to Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway
(Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday October 27 2018, @11:27PM (2 children)
Space elevator might be coming soon. If China isn't bullshitting about their breakthrough, that new carbon-nanotube fiber they created is upwards of 45 times stronger than a steel cable. IIRC, it was like 1 gram of cable could hold 160 elephants. Certainly sounds like it could at least handle its own weight if you made a cable from the ground to space with this new material.
The space elevator is by far the best idea for us to seriously start working in outer space.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 28 2018, @04:06PM (1 child)
A Space elevator doesn't have an advantage over a rocket. You have to expend more energy to get to the top, not counting the two weeks to get there.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday October 28 2018, @07:56PM
Maybe, but how expensive is the energy? You could get it from solar or some other external source and send it up the cable. Whereas rockets are limited by the need to carry their own propellant.
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