The hope is that any failure comes far enough into the flight
CAR STATS:SpaceX’s Elon Musk also runs the electric carmaker Tesla. The rocket is designed to hoist super size satellites as well as equipment to the moon, Mars or other far-flung points. Musk said that the car could come fairly close to Mars and that there’s an “extremely tiny” chance it could crash into the planet. But he quickly added, “I wouldn’t hold your breath.DESTINATION:SpaceX is targeting a long, oval orbit around the sun for the Roadster that will take the car as far out as Mars, and have it making laps for a billion years. It’s at the top of the rocket, enclosed for liftoff..Instead, the rocket will be hauling a red sports convertible with a space-suited dummy at the wheel and David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” on the soundtrack. SpaceX is bucking decades of launch tradition for the first test flight of its new megarocket. It is one of the car company’s original Roadsters. SpaceX leases Launch Complex 39A from NASA.
“This time I don’t, so that may be a bad sign.HISTORIC DEPARTURE POINT:The Falcon Heavy is flying from the same launch pad used by NASA to send men to the moon. None of the usual, no-big-deal-if-it’s-destroyed launch ballast — like steel or concrete slabs, or mundane experiments — for this curtain raiser. Once spent, they will aim for side-by-side vertical touchdowns at Cape Canaveral. The Federal Aviation Administration had to sign off on the Heavy-Tesla combo.”
The hope is that any failure comes far enough into the flight “so we at least learn as much as possible along the way. The brand new, center core will attempt to land on an ocean barge.” Musk’ intent on establishing a city on the red planet, with hordes of Earthlings and building materials flying there on a super-extra-mega SpaceX rocket that is still in development. NASA, meanwhile, is sinking billions of dollars into a massive new rocket called the Space Launch System, or SLS, that’s meant to return astronauts to the moon and also get them one day to Mars. He also said he normally feels “super stressed out” the day before a launch. So in a bit of cross-marketing, he’s put his own cherry-red Tesla Roadster on the Heavy’s inaugural flight. Not only did LC-39A, as it’s known, serve as the departure point for all the Apollo moonshots from 1968 to 1972, it was the scene for most of the space shuttle liftoffs. Two of the Heavy’s boosters are recycled; they have flown on previous Falcon 9 launches. The protective cover will drop away, allowing the car to travel on its way.
SpaceX has changed its mind about carrying people on the Heavy, Musk said, preferring to use the super-duper rocket under development. It’s location at Kennedy Space Center keeps people at least three miles away, a distance determined by NASA in the 1960s to be safe just in case the Saturn V exploded on the pad.FUTURE FLIGHTS: SpaceX already has customers lined up for the Falcon Heavy. The Falcon Heavy is set to become the world’s most powerful rocket in use today when it blasts off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. No car has ever rocketed into space before, if you don’t count NASA’s Apollo-era moon buggies, still parked on the lunar surface.SpaceX is bucking decades of launch tradition for the first test flight of its new megarocket. Stretching 40 feet (12 meters) at the base and standing 230 feet (70 meters) tall, the Heavy is a triple dose of the Falcon 9, the company’s frequent flyer with just a single booster.COMPETITION: Blue Origin, an aerospace company run by another billionaire, is developing a large orbital-class rocket that promises to give Heavy an out-of-this-world run for its money.
The private company’s online flight manifest shows the US Air Force as already signed up.On the eve of the launch, Musk said he’s at peace with whatever happens, be it a successful test flight or an explosive failure. Three cameras are mounted on the Roadster that should provide “some epic views if they work and everything goes well,” Musk said.” “Hoping for a beautiful, nominal flight!” Bezos wrote via Twitter. “It’s guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another,” Musk said.”More about the planned launch:ROCKET STATS:The Falcon Heavy has three first-stage boosters, strapped together with 27 engines in all.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, the force behind Blue Origin, offered Musk “best of luck. It’s the inspiration of Elon Musk, the high-tech, science fiction-loving maverick who heads SpaceX and electric car maker Tesla. At liftoff, the Heavy packs about 5 million pounds of thrust. If the convertible makes it into space in one piece, it still must endure several hours of deep-space coasting through the high-energy Van Allen radiation belts encircling Earth. China Vacuum bags Factory That’s more liftoff punch than any other rocket currently operating in the world — by a factor of two — but less than NASA’s old space shuttles and Saturn V moon rockets. In the language of rocket scientists, “nominal” means the rocket behaves and the cargo reaches its target