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  1. #1
    DF Founder Raptor's Avatar
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    BBC News Elon Musks Falcon Heavy rocket launches successfully

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    US entrepreneur Elon Musk has launched his new rocket, the Falcon Heavy, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
    The mammoth vehicle - the most powerful since the shuttle system - lifted clear of its pad without incident to soar high over the Atlantic Ocean.
    It was billed as a risky test flight in advance of the lift-off.
    The SpaceX CEO said the challenges of developing the new rocket meant the chances of a successful first outing might be only 50-50.
    With this debut, the Falcon Heavy aims to become the most capable launch vehicle available.
    It is designed to deliver a maximum payload to low-Earth orbit of 64 tonnes - the equivalent of putting five London double-decker buses in space.
    Such performance is slightly more than double that of the world's next most powerful rocket, the Delta IV Heavy - but at one third of the cost, says Mr Musk.
    For this experimental and uncertain mission, however, he decided on a much smaller and whimsical payload - his old cherry-red Tesla sports car.
    A space-suited mannequin was strapped in the driver's seat, and the radio set to play David Bowie's classic hit Space Oddity on a loop.
    If all phases of the flight are successful - and that will not be known until at least 6.5 hours after lift-off - the Tesla and its passenger will be despatched into an elliptical orbit around the Sun that reaches out as far as the Planet Mars.
    The Falcon Heavy is essentially three of SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 vehicles strapped together. And, as is the usual practice for SpaceX, all three boost stages - the lower segments of the rocket - returned to Earth attempting controlled landings.
    Two came back to touchdown zones on the Florida coast just south of Kennedy; the third booster was due to settle on a drone ship stationed several hundred kilometres out at sea.
    During the launch, the video signal from the drone ship was lost, so the fate of the third booster is not yet clear.
    The upper-stage of the Falcon Heavy, with its Tesla cargo, began what hopefully will be an escape trajectory to Mars' orbit.
    That requires the engine on the upper-stage to fire on three separate occasions, with the third and final ignition only occurring after a long cruise phase.
    Mr Musk warned before the flight that this was one of the phases he was most concerned would not work properly. The upper-stage has to pass through a concentrated region of radiation above the Earth, known as the Van Allen Belts, and this could interfere with electronic systems.
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    Having such a large and powerful rocket should open up some fascinating new possibilities for Mr Musk and his SpaceX company. These include launching:

    • Much bigger satellites for use by US intelligence and the military. The scale of these satellites is limited by current rocket performance.
    • Large batches of satellites, such as those for Mr Musk's proposed constellation of thousands of spacecraft to deliver broadband across the globe.
    • Bigger, more capable robots to go to the surface of Mars, or to visit the outer planets such as Jupiter and Saturn, and their moons.
    • Huge telescopes. Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is having to be folded origami-like to fit in its launcher next year.

    But it is the low cost - brought about through the recovery and reuse of the boosters - that Elon Musk believes will be a game-changer when allied to the new performance.
    "It'll be game-over for all other heavy-lift rockets," he told reporters on Monday.
    "It'll be like trying to sell an aircraft where one aircraft company has a reusable aircraft and all the other companies had aircraft that were single-use where you would parachute out at your destination and the plane would crash-land randomly somewhere. Crazy as that sounds - that's how the rocket business works."



    BBC News
    Last edited by BertRoot; 7th February 2018 at 12:28 AM.

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  2. #2
    DF VIP Member GTI's Avatar
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    Default Re: Elon Musks Falcon Heavy rocket launches successfully

    This is the most remarkable thing I've ever seen. Rather than fall somewhere in the Ocean, he lands the fuckers side-by-side.



    Elon Musk is a true genius and showman.
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  3. #3
    DF VIP Member AD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Elon Musks Falcon Heavy rocket launches successfully

    Watched that last night and the two boosters landing together was immense. Just wish the video feed for the Core didn't go offline.

    Did that comeback or not? Not seen or heard anything about it.

  4. #4
    DF VIP Member neilb's Avatar
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    Default Re: Elon Musks Falcon Heavy rocket launches successfully

    Apparently the core landing failed, I think the motor failed in the last seconds and it went of the edge of the ship.

  5. #5
    DF General DogsBody
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    Default Re: Elon Musks Falcon Heavy rocket launches successfully

    All that to put a car into orbit


  6. #6
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    Default Re: Elon Musks Falcon Heavy rocket launches successfully

    One of the three thrusters on the core fired up but as the other two didn't it landed near the drone ship at 300mph! They hope to use the footage on the next blooper reel.

    I only got onto the stream 2 mins before takeoff so didn't have time to post here but it was awesome, the landing was insane.


  7. #7
    DF VIP Member tips's Avatar
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    Default Re: Elon Musks Falcon Heavy rocket launches successfully

    That video of the boosters landing has to be one of the greatest feats of engineering that I have ever seen. Absolutely awesome, thanks for the link.

  8. #8
    DF VIP Member DavidF's Avatar
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    Default Re: Elon Musks Falcon Heavy rocket launches successfully

    Quote Originally Posted by Mickey View Post
    All that to put a car into orbit

    Apart from the worldwide advertising of his car and brand probably remembered for a lifetime lol. Add to that that he has now stolen a march on getting sizeable payloads into space...he has also "proven" the tech behind this reusable rockets malarkey. They are also saying that they hope to be taking paying passengers into orbit/space by the end of the year....All said and done he had a good day yesterday lol.

  9. #9
    DF VIP Member GTI's Avatar
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    Default Re: Elon Musks Falcon Heavy rocket launches successfully

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidF View Post
    Apart from the worldwide advertising of his car and brand probably remembered for a lifetime lol. Add to that that he has now stolen a march on getting sizeable payloads into space...he has also "proven" the tech behind this reusable rockets malarkey. They are also saying that they hope to be taking paying passengers into orbit/space by the end of the year....All said and done he had a good day yesterday lol.
    He makes the European Space Agency and NASA look like the lumbering behemoths that they are... having said that, I'm sure he poached their best scientists.
    "You have reached the end of you free trial membership at BenjaminFranklinQuotes.com"
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  10. #10
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    Default Re: Elon Musks Falcon Heavy rocket launches successfully

    Quote Originally Posted by GTI View Post
    He makes the European Space Agency and NASA look like the lumbering behemoths that they are... having said that, I'm sure he poached their best scientists.
    From what I read they have a high turnover of staff at SpaceX as Elon expects them to all work as hard as he does, the man is an absolute machine, not entirely sure he isn't an android or some shit!


  11. #11
    DF VIP Member MHP's Avatar
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    Default Re: Elon Musks Falcon Heavy rocket launches successfully

    Quote Originally Posted by evilsatan View Post
    Not entirely sure he isn't an android or some shit!
    Even his name sounds like a character from a 70's sci-fi show.

  12. #12
    DF VIP Member c0axial's Avatar
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    Default Re: Elon Musks Falcon Heavy rocket launches successfully

    The Man is a God... I Think he's using Alien Tech

  13. #13
    DF VIP Member c0axial's Avatar
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    Default Re: Elon Musks Falcon Heavy rocket launches successfully

    Quote Originally Posted by GTI View Post
    He makes the European Space Agency and NASA look like the lumbering behemoths that they are... having said that, I'm sure he poached their best scientists.
    Private Money works Wonders

  14. #14
    DF VIP Member BertRoot's Avatar
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    Default Re: Elon Musks Falcon Heavy rocket launches successfully

    Thing is you let a public funded org do anyting and they will cost ten times as much cos civil servants across the globe do things as slowly as possible and as expensive as they can. Take it private and your job is a bit more dependant on you doing it right and within budget and to the timescales you were set. I admire the guy and think he is probably one of our best hopes for tech moving forward.


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