Falcon Heavy

It represents a huge leap forward towards the return of human space exploration. Whilst the impact of the launch is high, SpaceX CEO and Lead Designer Elon Musk admitted that the rocket might not make it to orbit, and he would count the test launch successful if it didn’t explode on the launchpad and cause damage.

The Falcon Heavy is capable of doing immense damage to the launchpad, had it not been successful. It is the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two, with the ability to lift more than twice the payload of the next vehicle, at one-third the cost. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit. SpaceX has not made the Falcon Heavy to take humans to other terrestrial bodies like the Saturn V, the main function of this rocket will be to launch astronauts to Earth orbit and take large satellites to their designated orbits.

‘It is the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two.’

Three cores make up the first stage of Falcon Heavy. The side cores, or boosters, are connected to the center core at its base and at the vehicle’s interstage. With a total of 27 Merlin engines, Falcon Heavy’s three cores are capable of generating more than 5 million pounds of thrust.

For this test flight, Falcon Heavy’s two side cores are both flight-proven. One launched the Thaicom 8 satellite in May 2016 and the other supported the CRS-9 mission in July 2016. But for this test flight, a major test that SpaceX was conducting was attempting to land all three first stage cores. After separating from the rocket, the plan was to land the two side cores at SpaceX’s Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Then, land the centre core on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

As this first launch was a test flight, Falcon Heavy did not carry a customer payload. It did, however, launch Musk’s midnight-cherry Tesla Roadster. Demonstration missions like this one typically carry steel or concrete blocks as mass simulators, but SpaceX decided it would be more worthwhile to launch something fun and without irreplaceable sentimental value: a red Roadster for the red planet.

The payload included many small quirks that played homage to several science fiction classics. In the driver’s seat was a mock passenger in a SpaceX spacesuit called Starman. Starman will be listening to Space Oddity on repeat for his journey to Mars, with other small references included from Asimov’s Foundation Series and Star Wars.

The launch was watched by thousands of bystanders and people across the world through the livestream – all cheering as the huge rocket soared into the sky. The two boosters detached and travelled back to Earth where they were successful in their attempt to land and be recovered. Landing and recovering boosters is not new SpaceX technology, in fact, both of these boosters had already been recovered from previous launches. Regardless, the sight of the boosters landing in unison was magical and surreal.

Once separated from the Roadster payload, the final rocket core then detached and made its way back to Earth for it’s attempted landing. The core missed the landing pad by around 100 metres. Musk said that the likely cause of the crash was due to a lack of ignition fluid to light the two outer engines which meant the booster could not slow down enough for landing. They estimate that the booster catastrophically collided with the ocean surface at 300mph, sending shrapnel in all directions and taking out two engines on the droneship where it was meant to land.

Meanwhile, Starman and his Roadster were live broadcast with the awesome backdrop of Planet Earth, before the engine fired again to send the payload on a new trajectory. The payload was intended to be sent into a precessing Earth-Mars elliptical orbit around the Sun. The destination was an orbit around the red planet, however the Roadster overshot it’s path to Mars and is now flying out into the abyss of space, not quite reaching the Asteroid Belt.

The original final destination of the Roadster was an ode to the company’s future plans of sending humans to Mars in the next decade.

It’s important to remember that this mission was a test flight. Even though not all aspects of the test were successful, these failures should not overshadow the great achievement of the launch in general. A rocket that large, and with so much payload capacity, has not been launched in decades. It is a huge step forward for space travel in the 21st century, where space exploration is fueled by genuine curiosity rather than warfare and politics.

50th Falcon 9 Launch

SpaceX has completed another successful launch of it’s Falcon 9 rocket, marking the launch vehicles 50th launch. On March 6th 2017, no one fretted over the success of what has become a routine launch for the young space company.

The 50th mission also launched the rocket’s biggest payload yet- a bus-sized satellite, dubbed Hispasat 30W -6, weighing in at over 6 tonnes. The Falcon 9 delivered the satellite into a Geostationary Transfer Orbit from which it will continue to its specific geostationary orbit where it will deliver television, broadband and other telecommunications solutions.

The 50th launch of SpaceX’s first rocket highlights the success and achievement of the company as it’s been able to achieve this milestone in such a short amount of time. SpaceX founder and CEO tweeted

“Can’t believe it’s been fifty Falcon 9 launches already. Just ten years ago, we couldn’t even reach orbit with little Falcon 1.”

Whilst the company has grown as it developed it’s space capabilities, it has heavily relied on Low Earth Orbit contracts using it’s Falcon 9 to fund it’s operations and growth.