SpaceX is trying out a new type of booster landing (3-engine burn, decelerates maybe at 10gs instead of 3gs) that worked better at least on the ocean surface.
I knew something was up on the webcast when they repeatedly said they weren’t recovering this booster, but then you heard the controller confirm that re-entry burn had started/ended. I don’t think they normally even do a burn if they’re not planning to recover the first stage.
Even NASA uses the Fellout mod!
The Falcon Heavy launch is on for tomorrow if all goes well. They’ve added a ‘passenger’ to the car and it looks like we might get some good PR images:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BezcvpzAgYI/
Elon Musk is talking to the press about some mission details (ultimately from here):
We are doing a six-hour coast to demonstrate to the Air Force the capability to do direct-to-GEO missions. Risk is that the Roadster ends up in LEO.
…
If the third burn goes as we hope, the Tesla will get as far away as 380 to 450 million km from Earth.
Looks to me to be consistent with aiming for the typical distance of Mars (from Earth at opposition.)
That video is exactly what was thinking!
So I am thinking of waking up at 5:15am local time to watch the livestream of the Falcon Heavy launch. I want it to succeed, but I must admit the fact there is a fair chance it will fail spectacularly does make me want to witness it live more.
Excited! The beautiful thing about this launch is that we win no matter what.
Mr. Musk said he is usually “super stressed” the day before a launch, but this time, “I feel quite giddy and happy.” He added that perhaps that was a bad sign.
How do we win if it goes off course and crashes and explodes, killing people on the ground?
Highly unlikely it would ever get that far off target. It’s too delicate to survive such a course correction. I should add the landing pad could be a casualty and therefore loss. But that’s kind of expected, if a bummer.
Given the 4 million tons of TNT being bandied about as the exploding force it’s likely it would take a year or more to fix.
4 million pounds of TNT appears to be the correct number, though it’s supposedly a very high end estimate. (Not your typo, I saw it in an Ars Technica article, too.)
Ah, I saw it on the NYT. Big difference there =)
Is there a best way to watch today’s 1:30pm EST launch or is Google my friend?
edit: corrected dyslexic grammar
So a two kiloton blast. Hiroshima was a 15 kiloton blast.
The first test flight of Falcon Heavy is now targeted for Tuesday, Feb. 6th at 3:05 PM ET from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Teams are watching upper level wind shear and will continue to update as information becomes available.
I’ll be in my back yard. :)
Does it have a bunk?
There’s a link to the stream at spacex.com.
If the winds cooperate, we’re going to put it on a TV in the conference room here at the office.