[Lekooks] SpaceX's next trick is the second most powerful rocket ever launched

Wed Jan 31 23:09:34 CST 2018

Hi y'all,

Falcon Heavy had its first static fire

test

(https://youtu.be/sNgByUWwFKU) and has announced its inaugural launch date
-
Tuesday, 
February 6th

(
https://www.space.com/39519-spacex-first-falcon-heavy-rocket-launch-date.html
, in the embedded video he confesses "there's a lot that can go wrong" and
"it's guaranteed to be exciting"

)

This picture shows Falcon Heavy in the foreground and Falcon 9 in the
background. The Falcon 9 launched today.

[image: Inline image 1]

If you haven't seen a SpaceX launch and the
subsequent 
landing of the first stage rocket for reuse it's quite remarkable
, an engineering feat
.
This is a landing.

[image: Inline image 2]

Falcon 
Heavy uses three
of these 
Falcon
9 
rockets
 which each have
9 Merlin engines so 27 engines need to fire in unison for Falcon Heavy. The
hope
is for all three
Falcon 9s 
to land back on Earth
, t
he two side rockets simultaneously back at Cape Canaveral
, t
he third
a little later 
on the Atlantic Ocean droneship
, Of Course I Still Love You
.

This

video
by one of my favorite YouTube explainers, Curious Elephant, 
shows how all this is supposed to happen
.
"Falcon Heavy's Maiden Launch 101"

https://youtu.be/HyvYH3lae8k

The attached picture provides scale.

This is a test mission for going to Mars. Rather than the rock payload
usually carried in tests, Elon Musk's cherry red Roadster will be used,
playing David Bowie's Space Oddity at max volume (11 of course). After the
capsule gets to deep space (not just an earth orbit which is as far as
we've been since Apollo), the Roadster will be placed in a permanent orbit
around the sun. (Personally I think Elon just wants an excuse to buy the
new Roadster 2.0.)

Anyone a private pilot or know one that might be interested in a trip to
Florida? I'd definitely skip work for this (you didn't see this KB).

Stay well,
Liz

PS
 - 
I used to think spaceflight was a waste
 then grew to
like the unifying
 aspect of a national mission and that it promotes science and math
.
More recently
I learned
of
all we had
gained
from
space exploration
. This article lists some of the recent stuff.

"15 Ways the International Space Station is Benefiting Earth"

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/15
_ways_iss_benefits_earth
 Also, one of Elon's many goals is for a system of communication satelites
to bring the internet to everyone worldwide cheap (maybe free) and to allow
for more and shorter routes to be taken by planes saving time and fuel.

Here is more SpaceX footage and background info if you're interested.

This video is CRS-12's
 (Commercial Resupply Services mission 12, took stuff to the space station)

launch & landing. Jump to 13:15 for the launch, 16:00 for separation and
stage 1's boost
-
back burn to turn
back 
towards Earth (really neat to see the world pass beneath it) and 20:00 for
the landing.
https://youtu.be/vLxWsYx8dbo

This video is NROL-76, a satellite
launch
mission.
It
is filmed from Earth
 for a different perspective of the
separation and
the first stage rocket's 180
.
https://youtu.be/hw0ztRL37Rw

This shows a drone

ship landing. After four failures it
 was
the first successful rocket landing, mission CRS-8

.
 Don't let the narrators fool you, according to Elon they couldn't afford
to build another rocket if this one failed.
https://youtu.be/zS4T18oVaFk

Today's mission - http://www.spacex.com/webcast (I'm not sure how long the
video will be at this website.) "On Wednesday, January 31st, SpaceX
successfully launched the GovSat-1 satellite to a Geostationary Transfer
Orbit (GTO) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station, Florida. The satellite was deployed approximately 32 minutes
after launch, putting the GovSat-1 satellite into its targeted orbit.
Falcon 9’s first stage for the GovSat-1 mission previously supported the
NROL-76 mission from LC-39A in May 2017. You can watch a replay of the
mission below and find more information about the mission in our press kit."

Falcon 9 User's Guide
http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/falcon_9_users_guide_rev_2.0.pdf

Pricing for both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy missions, if you have a
satellite that needs launching or want to send something to ISS.
http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities
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