Space Flight

[Laurie61]

On Tuesday afternoon, a rocket the size of a 20-story building, containing 27 engines and a cherry-red Tesla Roadster as its payload, is due to lift off from NASA’s Pad 39A, the same launchpad used by the Apollo moon missions and space shuttle flights. It will be the maiden flight of Space X’s Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket to launch in 45 years.

Falcon Heavy is built to be reusable. Its lower section comprises three Falcon 9 booster cores, holding nine Merlin engines each. Together, these cores generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust. SpaceX says it is capable of lifting more than 54 metric tons, or 119,000 pounds, into orbit, approximately equal to a 737 jetliner packed with fuel, people and luggage. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space.

The three engine cores will attempt a return and landing if launch is successful, another first for Space X.

Falcon Heavy is scheduled to launch in a three hour window from Feb. 6 - 5:30 pm gmt.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42950957

Live video should be available here -

 

[Gramaisc]

I know it's a test and all that, but could they not have done something potentially more useful than flinging an old car into space?

 

[Laurie61]

I know it's a test and all that, but could they not have done something potentially more useful than flinging an old car into space?

I does seem a waste, perhaps a competition to build and launch a school satellite could have been organised, but I think the trajectory of the payload, out to a Mars distance, makes this impractical ?

At least they have put a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide in the cars glove box.

 

[Gramaisc]

I presume that it's meant to be "quirky", as everything seems to be supposed to be now, but I can't believe that something sensible couldn't have been done.

 

[Laurie61]

I presume that it's meant to be "quirky", as everything seems to be supposed to be now, but I can't believe that something sensible couldn't have been done.

I could be that some were given the chance for a free ride but declined

 

[Laurie61]

SpaceX‏Verified account@SpaceX 1h1 hour ago
More
T-0 delayed to 2:20 p.m. EST, 19:20 UTC due to upper level wind shear. Continuing to monitor winds and will update as info becomes available.

 

[The Hawk]

I wish I was a spaceman, the fastest guy alive.

 

[Gramaisc]

I wish I was a spaceman, the fastest guy alive.

I would you fly around the Universe in an old Tesla Roadster Sport 2.5.

 

[Laurie61]

SpaceX‏Verified account@SpaceX 3m3 minutes ago
More
T-60 minutes until Falcon Heavy’s first test flight. Launch webcast will go live about 20 minutes before liftoff → http://spacex.com/webcast

 

[tek-monkey]

So what happened to stage 2 landing?!?!?!

 

[tek-monkey]

Lost it

 

[proactive]

Practice makes perfect in this game.

 

[Laurie61]

Lost it

Shame not to get all three back, seems as the core booster approached the platform as planned, but it unfortunately hit the water at 300 MPH and was lost, appears some of its return engines failed to light.

Watching the other two land together was impressive. Well done SpaceX.

 

[joshua]

 

[Gramaisc]

I presume that they are working on a much greener electric rocket?

 

[proactive]

Perfecting the Satnav, might be a more important priority...

http://news.sky.com/story/wrong-tur...ads-off-course-towards-asteroid-belt-11239916

 

[Gramaisc]

Already a conspiracy theory that it's all CGI fakery...

Firstly my eye balls tell me that the footage is fake cgi. 2nd its not possible to land a rocket in the way we are seeing - its goes against all common sense. 3rd the previous videos on this have been debunked, the part where you see the car on a mount gives it away, the car remains at the same angle and they show you the cgi projector turn on and then we are in space.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42969020

 

[tek-monkey]

I heard he's gonna send up fake satellites to hide the fact he didn't send up the satellites.

 

[Withnail]

Anyone who doesn't think that this...

... is the coolest thing they have thus far seen in their lifetimes either didn't see it 'in the moment', or have massively misinterpreted what 'cool' actually means.

I was reminded of the giddy days when the first Shuttle launches were televised - it felt equally momentous.

Forget the naysayers, this was about as cool af as anything could possibly be. The payload was the icing on it for me - let's not forget that SpaceX have previous in blowing up $260m worth of 'kit' on a test mission - only thing that would've approached would have been sending up a small china teapot. Only thing that might have topped that is if it were a massive 62 tonne gold teapot, but it's not like Musk is made of money.

There is now a car - with a mannequin passenger, with one hand on the wheel and an arm on the door, listening to Bowie on a loop, with a reminder DON'T PANIC on the dash, and a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide in the glovebox - heading out on an elliptical journey round the Sun.

What more could anyone realistically aspire to achieve?

I had a good feeling about 2018, and this has done very little to dampen my spirits.

 

[Cue]

I presume that it's meant to be "quirky", as everything seems to be supposed to be now, but I can't believe that something sensible couldn't have been done.

Usually tests use a block of concrete, this was far more interesting and got a lot of people interested in it which is cool and important.