Wednesday 7 February 2018

Falcon Heavy testflight

Just look at this. The successful test launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocketship, carrying a dummy payload of Elon Musk's 2008 Tesla roadster, followed by a perfect precision landing of both reusable side booster rockets. The central stage booster rocket core was intended to be landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic, but its touchdown failed and it did not survive. The car was sent initially into terrestrial orbit, and then into an elliptical solar orbit which will cross the orbit of Mars and approach that of Ceres. So, while the objective of returning the core failed, two of the three objectives - to return the reusable side rockets and to prove the Falcon Heavy could send a payload as far as Mars - were successful.

There is, however, a car stuffed with bric-a-brac now lost in space for the next few million years.




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