SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Happening Now

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rgMekanic

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SpaceX's heavy lift version of the Falcon 9 rocket is set to launch today at 3:45 PM EST. This is the first test of the Falcon Heavy, and is meant to be a demonstration to see if the rocket can put a payload into orbit. SpaceX has confirmed the Elon Musk's personal Tesla Roadster is onboard the rocket, along with a dummy wearing the prototype SpaceX space suit. You can watch the launch from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida here.
 
rgMekanic said:
SpaceX's heavy lift version of the Falcon 9 rocket is set to launch today at 3:45 PM EST. This is the first test of the Falcon Heavy, and is meant to be a demonstration to see if the rocket can put a payload into orbit. SpaceX has confirmed the Elon Musk's personal Tesla Roadster is onboard the rocket, along with a dummy wearing the prototype SpaceX space suit. You can watch the launch from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida here.
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Wonder if they're going to sell the roadster when it comes back down. o_O

I'll be watching this, if only for the dummy.
 
Reusable Heavy Lift. They've done it.

Nobu said:
Wonder if they're going to sell the roadster when it comes back down. o_O
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It wont be coming back unless somebody goes and gets it. The spacecraft will be put on a heliocentric orbit demonstrating the ability of their rocket to do trans-Mars injection burns.
 
rgMekanic said:
The boosters landing simultaneously was fucking incredible. Wow.
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Agreed, there were a lot of wows murmured in my office while watching it too. There was some great engineering in this launch.
 
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Always fun making flat earth jokes through the whole thing with coworkers. hahaha The reason they didn't show the last landing is cause the video didn't render right. bahahaha
 
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Damn, some people really are living in the future. Space is really exciting. I wish I could afford to visit the moon in my life. Not very likely but these people sure are pushing it. Huge props to them
 
I hope history will refer to this era as the dawn of commercial spaceflight and the first steps in human colonization of the solar system. It's sad and amazing at the same time to see the divide that still exists in humanity. Some still live by bronze age doctrine, while others put roadsters into space :cool:
 
M76 said:
I hope history will refer to this era as the dawn of commercial spaceflight and the first steps in human colonization of the solar system. It's sad and amazing at the same time to see the divide that still exists in humanity. Some still live by bronze age doctrine, while others put roadsters into space :cool:
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Someday, some intelligent lifeform out there will find a roadster floating in space with a dead battery and wonder, "what the smell is this?"... that, or a passing meteor/asteroid will smash through it like a wrecking ball.
 
I'm just really happy that this was successful. I hope it encourages others to get into Spaceflight as well. IMO, our future as a species is in Space.
 
The broadcast commentary is horrible. I watch these videos with the volume off. They could take a big clue from NASA on how to do launch narration.
 
this is fucking amazing! seeing both of those rockets land RIGHT on target... I'm so happy for #merica right now.

fuck porn! i will be watching both those rockets land at the same time over and over again.
 
This is the best thing I've seen in a long time. The Super Bowl was a boring irrelevancy by comparison.
Elon Musk puts all those sports and entertainment celebrities to shame, they are NOTHING compared to him.
 
is it just me or is the audio horribly stuttery?
 
pcgeekesq said:
This is the best thing I've seen in a long time. The Super Bowl was a boring irrelevancy by comparison.
Elon Musk puts all those sports and entertainment celebrities to shame, they are NOTHING compared to him.
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damn right it was and im an eagles fan. damn this was just awesome.
 
Nobu said:
Someday, some intelligent lifeform out there will find a roadster floating in space with a dead battery and wonder, "what the smell is this?"... that, or a passing meteor/asteroid will smash through it like a wrecking ball.
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Musk said that if anyone wants to go out and get it, they can have it.
What do you think it would sell for at auction in a hundred or a thousand years? :)
 
Seelenlos said:
You can see the view from the car now. Pretty amazing.
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Like the view. How much does it cost for a room?
Screenshot_20180206-164023.png
 
And then proceeds to land both boosters on the pad at the exact same time, just to show off...... This whole launch was ridiculously impressive. Threw it up on the lunchroom TV at the office.
 
so impressed you threw up? wow...

I hear the center core was invaded by lobster fest and hijacked back to their home dimension
 
CombatChrisNC said:
We cheered in this office. Really amazing what some good maths and engineering can do. Waiting to see what happened on the drone ship though!
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Core crashed off camera.. supposedly the final burn failed or wasn't long enough due to the extra weight on the booster.
 
Press conference with Musk right now:

The center stage crashed. Not enough of the chemical (boron something) that they use to ignite all three landing engines. Hit the water at 300MPH, damaged the drone ship.

But they weren't going to reuse any of these parts anyway: not the latest Block 5 design.

Falcon Heavy success gives Musk confidence that Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) will work.
Notes that cost of FH is only a little more expensive than Falcon 9.
 
That was super awesome :)

The twin landings were just unbeleiveable.
The whole things a major milestone in History.
 
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pcgeekesq said:
Press conference with Musk right now:

The center stage crashed. Not enough of the chemical (boron something) that they use to ignite all three landing engines. Hit the water at 300MPH, damaged the drone ship.

But they weren't going to reuse any of these parts anyway: not the latest Block 5 design.

Falcon Heavy success gives Musk confidence that Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) will work.
Notes that cost of FH is only a little more expensive than Falcon 9.
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I had a feeling they lost the center section when the camera feed just went grey and smoky for a split second before going offline heh, why they no have another ship a mile or 2 out watching the landing? Woulda been cool to see.

Still a huge success tho.
 
rgMekanic said:
I had a feeling they lost the center section when the camera feed just went grey and smoky for a split second before going offline heh, why they no have another ship a mile or 2 out watching the landing? Woulda been cool to see.

Still a huge success tho.
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or a small drone that takes off and lands on the platform a couple minutes before/after the landing.
 
No small feat to do all that, recovering any part of a launch vehicle makes it vastly cheaper to send things up. Seems they are well on their way to making spaceflight affordable for the commercial industry and maybe one day for us regular folks.
 
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rgMekanic said:
I had a feeling they lost the center section when the camera feed just went grey and smoky for a split second before going offline heh, why they no have another ship a mile or 2 out watching the landing? Woulda been cool to see.

Still a huge success tho.
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PR decision I would imagine, the booster reclaim was always a bonus and if they let the crash air that would be all anyone would focus on. Now they got a bunch of hours focus on the actual launch result and the space roadster. I wouldn't be surprised of some footage of the crash will be available at a later date.
 
I was in Orlando and I had to pull over on the 408 to watch this. I almost forgot about it. It was glorious to see it take off.
 
odditory said:
That twin booster landing was off the charts. I mean, where do we even put that on the scale of insanity.
Those weird Musk haters on the internet were quiet today. Real quiet.
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After seeing it live I was out of my mind for about half an hour. Just going crazy. Couldn't get any work done. Luckily the boss didn't mind as we all were watching it live. I have seen a previous reusable booster landing previously but seeing it live and a twin booster landing in sync at that is something I'll remember forever.

I know quite a few colleagues and friends who hates Elon Musk while I'm a big fan. Today was basically a middle finger to all haters.
 
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rgMekanic said:
The boosters landing simultaneously was fucking incredible. Wow.
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Can't repeat this enough. The math that had to go into that demonstration is mind boggling to have them land in unison. Wish the main booster came down clean. Haven't had time to seek out what happened, but nonetheless that was fucking sweet all around. We need more of that in society! Science!
 
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