Ka-boom! [Falcon Heavy launch, live]

Source: YouBoob
Published: Feb 6, 2018
Author: some African named Elon
Post Date: 2018-02-06 15:26:35 by Tooconservative
Views: 2171

Weather at the launch site is fine today, with mostly sunny skies and light winds. The official forecast calls for an 80 percent chance of favorable weather conditions at the time the launch window opens at 1:30pm ET. (UPDATE: The opening of the window has been delayed until 2:20pm ET due to upper-level wind concerns. The launch window closes at 4pm ET.)

Poster Comment:

Launch will be at 3:45pm EST, about 20 minutes from now.

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#1: Tooconservative    To: All (#0)

The payload is Musk's own cherry black Tesla roadster. He's trying to send it in a long orbit to Mars for the next few million years.



After the launch, presuming the rocket makes it into orbit, SpaceX will attempt to land the two side boosters at Landing Zone One. These landings should occur nearly simultaneously, at 7 minutes, 58 seconds after launch. The central core of the rocket will stay attached to the payload for a bit longer and then separate as well. If all goes well it will land on the "Of Course I Still Love You" drone ship at 8:19 into the flight.

This will not be a launch to miss. While certainly a scrub is possible—much could derail the fueling process that will begin about 90 minutes before launch—a rocket this powerful has not launched from Earth since the final space shuttle flight in 2011.

After the Falcon Heavy booster lifts off, the second stage will take over at 3 minutes and 15 seconds. It will burn again at 28 minutes and 52 seconds, which should place the second stage and its Tesla payload on a six-hour coast to a much higher orbit. After that time, if all goes well, the second stage will fire for a third time to send the Tesla on a precessing Earth-Mars elliptical orbit around the Sun. Musk said the vehicle should get as far as 380 million to 450 million km from Earth, depending on how the third burn goes.

Tooconservative posted on 2018-02-06 15:29:14   Reply   Private Reply

#2: Tooconservative    To: All (#0)

Fox News is lagging. It's well off the ground now.

Goddam, that is a beautiful bird in flight.

Tooconservative posted on 2018-02-06 15:46:01   Reply   Private Reply

#3: Tooconservative    To: All (#2)

Holy shit, both boosters landed beautifully. And the center core is maneuvering like a beast for its landing. Incredible stuff.

Tooconservative posted on 2018-02-06 15:54:01   Reply   Private Reply

#4: Hondo68    To: Tooconservative (#1)

That Tesla will end up in a Martian junk yard.

In other news an interesting Tesla related salvage project...

Hondo68 posted on 2018-02-06 15:54:28   Reply   Private Reply