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ЦитироватьDebut of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket now planned early next year
November 28, 2017 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/11/) Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)


Artist's illustration of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket in flight. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX's first Falcon Heavy rocket is expected to roll out to pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for the first time next month for a hold-down firing of its 27 Merlin main engines, but the mega-rocket's inaugural test launch will slip into January, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Спойлер

The commercial space company, led by billionaire Elon Musk, held out hope of launching the first Falcon Heavy test flight before the end of December until recently. The delay to early 2018 was first reported Tuesday by Aviation Week and Space Technology, and SpaceX confirmed the schedule slip to Spaceflight Now.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer, told Aviation Week that the launch will follow the Falcon Heavy's static fire, which is set to occur in December, by a few weeks.

SpaceX is poised to move launches of its single-core Falcon 9 rockets to pad 40 at neighboring Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, beginning with a Dec. 8 flight to send cargo to the International Space Station, freeing up pad 39A for final upgrades and outfitting to support the Falcon Heavy.
...

Once the Falcon Heavy's triple-body core and second stage are assembled inside SpaceX's hangar, the transporter will roll into the integration building and cranes will hoist the rocket onto the strongback. The rocket will roll out to pad 39A for a fueling demonstration and at least one static fire test — depending on the test's outcome and results — before SpaceX gives the "go" for a launch attempt.

The static fire will mark the first time SpaceX has fired 27 Merlin 1D engines at once. A test stand big enough to support such a hold-down firing does not exist at the company's rocket test complex in McGregor, Texas, where each of the three booster cores has been fired individually.
Musk has tried to set expectations low for the Falcon Heavy's maiden flight.

"Falcon Heavy requires the simultaneous ignition of 27 orbit-class engines," Musk said in July. "There's a lot that can go wrong there.

"I encourage people to come down to the Cape to see the first Falcon Heavy mission," he added, hinting at the riskiness of the first test launch. "It's guaranteed to be exciting."

The 27 Merlin 1D engines will generate more than 5.1 million pounds of thrust at full power, about two-thirds the thrust produced by the space shuttle at liftoff, and more than any other present-day rocket.

"This is one of those things that's really difficult to test on the ground," Musk said. "We can fire the engines on the ground, and we can try to simulate the dynamics of having 27 instead of nine booster engines, and the airflow as it goes through transonic (as it exceeds the speed of sound). It's going to see heavy transonic buffet. How does it behave at Max-Q (maximum dynamic pressure)?

A single Merlin engine on the Falcon Heavy's second stage will finish the climb into orbit.

"There's a lot of risk associated with Falcon Heavy, a real good chance that that vehicle does not make it to orbit," Musk said, referring to the first test launch. "I want to make sure to set expectations accordingly. I hope it makes it far enough beyond the pad so that it does not cause pad damage. I would consider even that a win, to be honest."

SpaceX has not announced the specific orbital destination for the Falcon Heavy test flight, but the demo mission will not carry a customer payload.

First announced in 2011 with a target launch date in 2013, the Falcon Heavy's development took much longer than Musk originally predicted.

"At first it sounds real easy, you just stick two first stages on as strap-on boosters, but then everything changes," Musk said in a question-and-answer session earlier this year. "All the loads change, aerodynamics totally change. You've tripled the vibration and acoustics. You sort of break the qualification levels on so much of the hardware."

The side boosters on the inaugural Falcon Heavy flight are refitted Falcon 9 first stages recovered on previous SpaceX launches. Ground crews added aerodynamic nose cones to the boosters and installed forward and aft attach points to connect to the newly-manufactured center stage, which sports structural enhancements to accommodate the extra stress of a Falcon Heavy launch.

"The amount of load you're putting through that center core is crazy because you've got two super-powerful boosters also shoving that center core, so we had to redesign the whole center core airframe," Musk said. "It's not like the Falcon 9 because it's got to take so much load. Then you've got separation systems."

After completing their firings, the side boosters will shut down and jettison from the core stage, flip around and thrust back toward landing pads at Cape Canaveral, descending back to Florida's Space Coast in formation for nearly simultaneous touchdowns.

The center stage will throttle up and burn its nine engines longer, heading for landing on SpaceX's offshore recovery platform in the Atlantic Ocean while the second stage fires into orbit.

The Falcon Heavy will weigh more than 3.1 million pounds (1.4 million kilograms) fully loaded with kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants and stand more than 229 feet (70 meters) tall.

"The nice thing is when you fully optimize it, it's about two-and-a-half times the payload capability of a Falcon 9," Musk said. "It's well over 100,000 pounds to LEO (low Earth orbit) of payload capability, 50 tons. It can even get up a little higher than that if optimized."
...

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ЦитироватьOleg пишет:
https://twitter.com/SandyMazza

ЦитироватьFalcon Heavy's 3 cores are shown in the lower left corner at Aerospace Corp's launch-control room display, awaiting test fire

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
А у Falcon Heavy заправка верхней ступень увеличена по сравнею с обычным Флаконом?

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
центральный блок с верхней ступенью разгонятся где-то до 5 км/c.

Цитировать Elon Musk‏Подлинная учетная запись @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) 9 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/936781265675599873)

Falcon Heavy to launch next month from Apollo 11 pad at the Cape. Will have double thrust of next largest rocket. Guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another.

Спойлер

Elon Musk‏Подлинная учетная запись @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) 6 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/936782477502246912)

Payload will be my midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity. Destination is Mars orbit. Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn't blow up on ascent.

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ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет: 
Непонятно насколько это серьёзно (насчёт Тесла Родстер). Больше похоже на шутку.

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:
Непонятно насколько это серьёзно (насчёт Тесла Родстер). Больше похоже на шутку.

В стиле Маска, все именно так и будет)
А ещё, возможно, это объясняет странности орбиты.

Цитироватьpnetmon пишет:
Чтобы остаться на орбите Марса Tesla Roadster должна быть заключена в какое-то устройство. Интересно как он на орбиту Марса собирается выходить.
1 декабря - 1 апреля?

ЦитироватьSpaceX will try to launch Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster on new heavy-lift rocket
December 2, 2017 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/12/) Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)


The interstage of SpaceX's first Falcon Heavy rocket pictured inside the company's factory last year in Hawthorne, California. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk tweeted Friday that his red Tesla Roadster will head for deep space on the maiden flight of the company's Falcon Heavy rocket as soon as next month, and do it to the tune of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."

Спойлер

But it won't make the trip on battery power.

SpaceX's Falcon rockets burn hydrocarbons for fuel, consuming a grade of highly refined kerosene called RP-1. The rockets' Merlin engines burn the RP-1 kerosene mixed with super-cold liquid oxygen.

Musk tweeted Friday night that the Falcon Heavy's first test flight, scheduled to blast off fr om Florida's Space Coast next month, will have his midnight cherry Tesla Roadster on-board.

The Falcon Heavy's "payload will be my midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity," Musk tweeted. "Destination is Mars orbit."

The repurposed car "will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn't blow up on ascent," he wrote.

Musk's Twitter followers weren't sure whether to take him seriously.

"The great part about @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) is that I'm not sure if this is a joke or for real," tweeted @MikeCharlieGolf.


Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, unveiled a new Roadster concept car last month. Credit: Tesla

"Just to reiterate, the payload for the first Falcon Heavy rocket will be a Tesla electric car, playing Space Oditty, heading for Mars," wrote @JC_Channel.

Apparently confirming his own tweet, Musk replied simply: "Yes."

Joy Dunn, a SpaceX engineer, tweeted: "Falcon Heavy payload has been announced! This is going to be awesome!" She later clarified that the plan was real, writing: "Oh this is legit and of course there will be cameras!"

The payload and destination for SpaceX's first Falcon Heavy launch has been the subject of speculation.

Musk told reporters in March that SpaceX would put "the silliest thing we can imagine" on the first Falcon Heavy flight. The company placed a wheel of cheese on the first flight of its Dragon cargo craft in an ode to the Monty Python comedy group.

The Tesla Roadster weighs about 2,760 pounds (1,250 kilograms), measures nearly 13 feet (3.9 meters) long and spans about 5.7 feet (1.7 meters) wide, according to Car and Driver magazine. That's well within the Falcon Heavy's lift capability to go to Mars.


Artist's illustration of the Falcon Heavy's two side-mounted boosters separating from the rocket a few minutes after liftoff. Credit: SpaceX

Musk's tweet left open the question of whether the Roadster would enter orbit around the red planet, or fly to the distance of Mars' orbit, perhaps for a flyby. In order to ins ert itself into orbit around Mars, the car would need a rocket pack to slow down for capture by Martian gravity.

Ideal Mars launch opportunities only come once every 26 months, when space probes can make the journey in less than a year. The next Mars launch window opens in May.

Launching at another time does not preclude a trip to Mars, although the payload would have to take a longer route, or use a lot more fuel to bend its trajectory and shorten the voyage.

Three rocket boosters based on the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage will power the Falcon Heavy rocket toward space, delivering 5.1 million pounds of thrust from 27 Merlin 1D main engines. Technicians are preparing hardware for the maiden Falcon Heavy launch inside SpaceX's hangar at launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, wh ere Apollo moon missions and space shuttles lifted off.

"Falcon Heavy to launch next month from Apollo 11 pad at the Cape," Musk tweeted Friday night. "Will have double thrust of next largest rocket. Guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another."

SpaceX needs the Falcon Heavy to loft the heaviest satellites for commercial and U.S. military customers. It could also hurl large clusters of lighter satellites in to orbit to build out new broadband communications networks.

Musk unveiled the Falcon Heavy rocket in 2011, and proclaimed then the launcher would be ready for blastoff in 2013. SpaceX said it slowed development of the Falcon Heavy to focus on other projects, including the recovery of Falcon 9 rocket stages for reuse, and to resolve technical problems that destroyed two Falcon 9 rockets in 2015 and 2016, one in flight and another on the launch pad.

If the Roadster reaches Mars, it would be the first SpaceX payload to visit another planet.

Musk announced in September his updated vision for settling Mars, and announced that SpaceX is working on a giant new rocket dubbed the BFR that could send cargo and crew ships to the red planet, or perhaps the moon if a lunar base becomes reality.

SpaceX previously planned to dispatch a "Red Dragon" capsule to land on Mars in 2020, but that project was canceled in favor of the larger BFR initiative, which Musk claimed could be ready as soon as 2024, a goal he admitted was "aspirational."

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ЦитироватьOK, here is the 2008 Roadster in the PLF.

ЦитироватьЗловредный пишет:
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=42705.msg1755022#msg1755022

ЦитироватьOK, here is the 2008 Roadster in the PLF.

Цитироватьm-s Gelezniak пишет:
Это официальное или на НСФ нарисовали?

ЦитироватьLesobaza пишет:
Плагиатор!!
"Союз ТМА-Нива"

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZoqEA0W1Io

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:
Просьба к Администратору:

Заменить в названии темы МакетПН на Tesla Roadster)

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
центральный блок с верхней ступенью разгонятся где-то до 5 км/c.

Это вряд ли. ПН многоразового Фалкона Хэви близка к одноразовом Фалкону 9, так что для ЦБ можно ожидать похожих значений скорости - 2600-2700 м/с. Тем более в первом пуске и на очень странную орбиту (http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/messages/forum13/topic12186/message1683813/#message1683813) .

Цитировать Stephen Clark‏ @StephenClark1 (https://twitter.com/StephenClark1) 12 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/StephenClark1/status/937086912275386370)

A SpaceX official who doesn't run Elon's Twitter account just told me the Roadster to Mars payload is real.

Цитировать Robin Seemangal‏Подлинная учетная запись @nova_road (https://twitter.com/nova_road) 5 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/nova_road/status/937090427882176512)

SpaceX just sent an email: Elon's Roadster will be the Falcon Heavy test-flight payload.

Цитировать https://twitter.com/DutchSpace/status/936930034568151047

Hey Elon, that idea was used before back in 1975 when @CNES (https://twitter.com/CNES) introduced their new launcher #DiamantBP4 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/DiamantBP4?src=hash) and placed a @renault (https://twitter.com/renault) 4 on the launcher/pad (didnt launch it though...) @ESA_History (https://twitter.com/ESA_History)

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:
Непонятно насколько это серьёзно (насчёт Тесла Родстер). Больше похоже на шутку.

В стиле Маска, все именно так и будет)
А ещё, возможно, это объясняет странности орбиты.

ЦитироватьSGS_67 пишет:
Мсм, Маск делает большую ошибку.
Вменяемые люди, в тех же США, такого "пеара" не поймут.
Расточительство богачей там не приветствуется, в отличие от бантустанов...

ЦитироватьThis appears to be a decision to start clearing the Block 3 stock in favour of the Block 4s and soon to be Block 5s http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/messages/forum12/topic16230/message1720231/#message1720231

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
А обтекатели боковых блоков сбрасываются или останутся до посадки?

Цитировать Robin Seemangal‏Подлинная учетная запись @nova_road (https://twitter.com/nova_road) 3 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/nova_road/status/943541087007903744)

.@SpaceBrendan (https://twitter.com/SpaceBrendan) confirms #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash) targeting January for static-fire of Falcon Heavy's 27 Merlin engines

Цитировать 90.7 WMFE‏ @wmfeorlando (https://twitter.com/wmfeorlando) 3 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/wmfeorlando/status/943539023972388865)

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Awaits Maiden Voyage From Kennedy Space Center http://www.wmfe.org/spacexs-falcon-heavy-awaits-maiden-voyage-from-kennedy-space-center/81552 ... (https://t.co/2xUJsjFGPj)

ЦитироватьPirat5 пишет:
для демо-пуска можно было бы и без лап

ЦитироватьPirat5 пишет:
для демо-пуска можно было бы и без лап,

ЦитироватьThis appears to be a decision to start clearing the Block 3 stock in favour of the Block 4s and soon to be Block 5s http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/messages/forum12/topic16230/message1720231/#message1720231

раз уж 2 ступени из трёх им уже не нужны.

Цитировать Elon Musk‏Подлинная учетная запись @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) 17 ч назад (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/943420026593337344)

Falcon Heavy at the Cape

...

6 ч.6 часов назад (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/943590152181448704)

Max thrust at lift-off is 5.1 million pounds or 2300 metric tons. First mission will run at 92%.

ЦитироватьGeorgea пишет:
Возврат всех бустеров - мощный пиар-ход и хорошая тренировка.

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:

ЦитироватьGeorgea пишет:
Возврат всех бустеров - мощный пиар-ход и хорошая тренировка.

Главное чтобы программисты не накосячили и не свели два боковых бустера на одну площадку  :D

ЦитироватьLRV_75 пишет:
Главное чтобы программисты не накосячили и не свели два боковых бустера на одну площадку  :D  

Цитироватьmarvin пишет:
Если Маск обещает запустить теслу к марсу, То как насчет стерилизации? Теперь там будет жизнь?

ЦитироватьV.B. пишет:
Уже давно болтается. Называется Земля.

ЦитироватьBoris Mekler пишет:
Если Маск обещает запустить теслу к марсу, То как насчет стерилизации? Теперь там будет жизнь?

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:

ЦитироватьBoris Mekler пишет:
Если Маск обещает запустить теслу к марсу, То как насчет стерилизации? Теперь там будет жизнь?

А когда люди полетят на Марс, все так же будут переживать на счет стерильности?

Цитироватьmarvin пишет:
...Автоматические станции сейчас все стерилизуют.В НАСА, так понимаю, действуют определенные стандарты стерильности. Могу ошибаться.
Просто интересно как оно с допуском грязного объекта на гелиоцентрическую орбиту.

ЦитироватьA Red Car for the Red Planet

Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks. That seemed extremely boring. Of course, anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel. The payload will be an original Tesla Roadster, playing Space Oddity, on a billion year elliptic Mars orbit.

Цитировать  Anatoly Zak‏ @RussianSpaceWeb (https://twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb)
"Look, somebody threw this out!":
 
  13:14 - 22 дек. 2017 г.  

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:
А когда люди полетят на Марс, все так же будут переживать на счет стерильности?

Цитироватьus2-star пишет:
Да-а...  :o  
Ну всё, на этом фоне теперь всякие факелы, шайбы и тому подобная херня навсегда останутся детским садом маразма.  :)

Цитироватьus2-star пишет:
Да-а...  :o  
Ну всё, на этом фоне теперь всякие факелы, шайбы и тому подобная херня навсегда останутся детским садом маразма.  :)

Цитироватьus2-star пишет:
Ну всё, на этом фоне теперь всякие факелы, шайбы и тому подобная херня навсегда останутся детским садом маразма.

ЦитироватьGeorgea пишет:
Ждем ответа от Роскосмоса: очередных мощей святого преподобного.

Цитироватьtestest пишет:
Чем б/у машина хуже металлической болванки?

Цитироватьmarvin пишет:
Автоматические станции сейчас все стерилизуют.В НАСА, так понимаю, действуют определенные стандарты стерильности. Могу ошибаться.

Цитировать Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) 3 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/945701860563914752)

There's the Falcon Heavy payload (*cough, Elon's car*), encapsulated and heading into the 39A HIF. The entire Falcon Heavy stack - now mating with the TEL - will rollout to 39A for a fit check. Potentially before the end of year. WDR/Static Fire early in Jan.

Цитировать Emiliano C. Diaz de Leon‏ @ECDiazdeLeon (https://twitter.com/ECDiazdeLeon) 43 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/ECDiazdeLeon/status/945692630062690304)

We got a sneak peek at @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) rocket while taking the bus tour. #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash)

ЦитироватьSerge V Iz пишет:
Интересно, а можно было бы положить на заднее сиденье фарфоровый чайник? и так, чтобы скрыть это от широкой общественности. )

ЦитироватьЗачем? Что это означает?

Цитировать«Ча́йник Ра́ссела» (англ. Russell's Teapot) — аналогия, впервые приведённая английским математиком и философом Бертраном Расселом (1872—1970) для опровержения идеи, что бремя доказательстварусск. ложности религиозных утверждений лежит на сомневающемся

Цитировать Spaceflight Now‏ @SpaceflightNow (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow) 38 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/946389869378588672)

Falcon Heavy is going vertical for the first time at pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

Цитировать Spaceflight Now‏ @SpaceflightNow (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow) 23 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/946394663509995521)

The Falcon Heavy is now in place at launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin testing before its maiden flight next month. https://spaceflightnow.com/  (https://t.co/4nNZVsGBz3)

Цитировать Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) 4 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/946344056392699904)

SpaceX Falcon Heavy debut rollout to 39A "soon". Should be the full stack, per the fit check requirements. If you're in the area and spot her, take photos!

Remember, this is not the Static Fire test flow, this is a fit check. Static Fire will be about a week away.

48 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/946390789009047552)

Here we go, boys and girls. The big rocket is going vertical (so rollout was trouble free).

Цитировать  (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/946389869378588672)


Spaceflight Now @SpaceflightNow
Falcon Heavy is going vertical for the first time at pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

ЦитироватьAstro Cat пишет:
На 5 января же Зуму запланировали или нет?

ЦитироватьAstro Cat пишет:
На 5 января же Зуму запланировали или нет?

Цитировать Julia‏ @julia_bergeron (https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron) 35 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron/status/946404807379771394)

It is real! Look at that @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) View from Playalinda National Seashore vista. @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) @lorengrush (https://twitter.com/lorengrush)

Цитировать Michael Sheetz‏Подлинная учетная запись @thesheetztweetz (https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz) 30 мин назад (https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/946412578686885889)

And now another angle from @ExploreSpaceKSC (https://twitter.com/ExploreSpaceKSC) video of Falcon Heavy

ЦитироватьFalcon Heavy raised on pad 39A for first time
December 28, 2017 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/12/) Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)


SpaceX's Falcon Heavy stands vertical at pad 39A on Thursday. Credit: Spaceflight Now

SpaceX's first Falcon Heavy rocket, made up of two previously-flown Falcon 9 boosters and a beefed up central core stage, made the trip to launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and was raised vertical Thursday for testing ahead of its first liftoff next month.

Спойлер

The fully-assembled 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket will be the most powerful in the world when it blasts off, and Thursday's arrival atop pad 39A marks a major step toward readying the Falcon Heavy for flight.

SpaceX engineers are expected to conduct a fit check and complete other tests at pad 39A this week, followed by a hold-down firing of all 27 first stage engines some time after New Year's Day. The company has not set a target date for the Falcon Heavy's first liftoff, but officials say the launch is targeted in January, some time after the hold-down hotfire test.

The Falcon Heavy's inaugural test launch will have a dummy payload on-board, but SpaceX has readied a flashier, more colorful passenger than the boilerplates and water ballast carried on previous test flights of new heavy-lift launchers.

SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk decided to place one of his Tesla Roadsters on-board the Falcon Heavy, a cherry red creation fr om Musk's electric car company.

The Falcon Heavy will attempt to give the automobile enough speed to escape the grasp of Earth's gravity, sending it into a heliocentric solar orbit that will take it to the approximate distance of Mars from the sun.

When it blasts off next month, the heavy-lifter will generate about 4.7 million pounds of thrust at launch. Musk said the first Falcon Heavy's engines will be throttled to 92 percent of full power.

That will make the Falcon Heavy the most powerful rocket flying today, exceeding the European Ariane 5 launcher, the world's leader in liftoff power at 2.9 million pound of thrust from two segmented solid rocket boosters and a core engine. SpaceX's new rocket will produce more thrust than any launch vehicle since the space shuttle.

The Falcon Heavy will also be able to carry more payload into orbit than any other rocket in the world, a more important measure of the rocket's lifting capacity.

The Delta 4-Heavy rocket, operated by SpaceX rival United Launch Alliance, can haul up to 63,471 pounds (28,790 kilograms) to a low-altitude orbit approximately 120 miles (200 kilometers) above Earth when launched to the east from Cape Canaveral, according to a launch vehicle data sheet published by ULA.

When its first stage boosters are not recovered, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy will be capable of delivering up to 140,660 pounds (63,800 kilograms) to low Earth orbit when launched to the east from Florida's Space Coast, wh ere rockets get a velocity boost from Earth's rotation.

But SpaceX intends to land all three first stage boosters on the Falcon Heavy, eating into the rocket's propellant reserves and reducing the weight it can loft into orbit.

For the maiden flight next month, the Falcon Heavy's two side boosters, recovered and modified from Falcon 9 flights in 2016, will cut off and return to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for near-simultaneous landings. The center core, a newly-built booster, will head for landing on SpaceX's floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

[свернуть]

Цитировать Derrick.Stamos‏ @Helodriver2004 (https://twitter.com/Helodriver2004) 20 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/Helodriver2004/status/946518400142016513)

#SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash) #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) as seen from Playalinda Beach today, the first time it has ever been rolled to the pad. Great to finally to see in person after waiting 4 years. More pix on @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) .com  :)

Цитировать Michael Seeley‏ @Mike_Seeley (https://twitter.com/Mike_Seeley) 7 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/Mike_Seeley/status/946444223955525638)

It's real, 3 cores and all! Views of the @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) rocket upright on Pad 39A for the 1st time, as seen from @Explorationtwr (https://twitter.com/Explorationtwr) in @PortCanaveral (https://twitter.com/PortCanaveral) earlier today (12/28 ). (Pics by me / @WeReportSpace (https://twitter.com/WeReportSpace) )

Спойлер

[свернуть]

Цитировать15.01.2018 z wyrzutni LC-39A w KSC wystrzelony zostanie pierwszy egzemplarz RN Falcon Heavy (http://lk.astronautilus.pl/rakiety/falcon/falconh.jpg), która wyniesie na wiodącą ku Marsowi orbitę heliocentryczną samochód marki Tesla Roadster (http://lk.astronautilus.pl/sat/tesla.jpg). W T+9' zostanie podjęta próba lądowania rakiet wspomagających na LZ-1 (Landing Zone-1) (http://lk.astronautilus.pl/inne/kdrom/cclc1.jpg), a w T+10' pierwszego stopnia RN na barce ASDS (http://lk.astronautilus.pl/rakiety/asds.jpg) OCISLY na Atlantyku.

Цитировать Spaceflight Now‏ @SpaceflightNow (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow) 7 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/946749110375407616)

The Falcon Heavy rocket was lowered before sunrise this morning after making its launch pad debut at the Kennedy Space Center. Watch a time-lapse video: #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash) #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/12/29/time-lapse-video-falcon-heavy-lowered-after-launch-pad-debut/ ... (https://t.co/7bSOdk4XGk)


  NASA Nate‏ @NASA_Nerd (https://twitter.com/NASA_Nerd) 4 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/NASA_Nerd/status/946800900831510528)

Falcon Heavy sitting horizontal today on Launch Complex 39A following yesterday's fit checks. – Apollo/Saturn V Center (https://twitter.com/search?q=place%3A07d9c969a5c83000)

Цитировать Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) 2 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/947162198526357504)

ARTICLE: Falcon Heavy preparing for Static Fire test

- https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/12/falcon-heavy-maiden-static-fire-test/ ... (https://t.co/lHbsCmwhyx)

Цитировать

Falcon Heavy preparing for Static Fire test (https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/12/falcon-heavy-maiden-static-fire-test/)

written by Chris Bergin December 30, 2017

Цитировать... rocket ... will now head into the flow for its Static Fire test.

This test is currently expected to take place on January 6, although – as always – these dates can move around due to numerous factors such as readiness, range authority and weather.

Цитировать Stephen C. Smith‏ @WordsmithFL (https://twitter.com/WordsmithFL) 4 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/WordsmithFL/status/947161125292052485)

FYI the @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) is back in the hangar at Pad 39A.

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:
6 января - тестовая заправка и прожиг,

ЦитироватьAstro Cat пишет:

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:
6 января - тестовая заправка и прожиг,

Че то сомнительно. 5 го Зуму запускают. Вряд ли у них отдельные команды набраны для разных площадок.

Цитироватьus2-star пишет:
Чисто попридираться от нетерпения...  :D  
Может эту тему надо было бы в Межпланетные станции и научные аппараты (http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/forum11/) ?  ;)

ЦитироватьДимитър пишет:
Они что, на отлетную свой автомобиль собрались запустить!?

ЦитироватьAlex_II пишет:

ЦитироватьДимитър пишет:
Они что, на отлетную свой автомобиль собрались запустить!?

В направлении Марса...

Цитироватьinstml пишет:
аккумов и возможностей систем связи хватит максимум на пару суток,

ЦитироватьДимитър пишет:
Тогда да, однозначно в "междупланетные станции"!

Цитироватьinstml пишет:
аккумов и возможностей систем связи хватит максимум на пару суток,

Нет! У электромобилей очень мощные аккумуляторы - на несколько месяцев хватит, даже до Марса.

ЦитироватьInterval пишет:
Подзарядка от СБ там видимо, не предусмотрена.

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:
Не думаю, что в условиях космического холода от этих аккумов что то останется.

ЦитироватьНе думаю, что в условиях космического холода от этих аккумов что то останется.

ЦитироватьBlackMokona пишет:
У них есть подогрев, а ваккум хороший изолятор. Поэтому тратится на подогрев можно по минимуму

Цитироватьinstml пишет:
откуда следует что Родстер пытаются превратить в АМС, оснастив соответствующими системами (питание, ориентация, связь, резервирование и т.д.) ???

Цитироватьinstml пишет:
1) с чего вдруг на этой Тесле будет присутствовать штатная батарея, которая при этом будет питать электричеством всё остальное?
2) откуда следует что Родстер пытаются превратить в АМС, оснастив соответствующими системами (питание, ориентация, связь, резервирование и т.д.) ??? Что кстати довольно дорого, создание даже небольшой АМС это миллионы долларов. По моему наоборот данная машина концептуально превращается не в КА, а в чугуниевую болванку  ;)  

Цитироватьinstml пишет:
1) с чего вдруг на этой Тесле будет присутствовать штатная батарея, которая при этом будет питать электричеством всё остальное?

Цитироватьinstml пишет:
2) откуда следует что Родстер пытаются превратить в АМС, оснастив соответствующими системами (питание, ориентация, связь, резервирование и т.д.) ???

ЦитироватьAlexio пишет:
Интересно, как поведут себя батареи 18650 в вакууме? В них есть отверстие для сброса давления или они достаточно прочные?

ЦитироватьТак как конструкция всех современных аккумуляторов 18650 предусматривает наличие клапана, который сбрасывает внутреннее давление в случае неполадки, то есть, не дает ему, собственно, взорваться. И это уже важный факт. Отверстия этого клапана видны на плюсовом контакте.

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:
02.01.2018 01:42:45

ЦитироватьBlackMokona пишет:

ЦитироватьAlexio пишет:
Интересно, как поведут себя батареи 18650 в вакууме? В них есть отверстие для сброса давления или они достаточно прочные?

ЦитироватьТак как конструкция всех современных аккумуляторов 18650 предусматривает наличие клапана, который сбрасывает внутреннее давление в случае неполадки, то есть, не дает ему, собственно, взорваться. И это уже важный факт. Отверстия этого клапана видны на плюсовом контакте.

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:

ЦитироватьBlackMokona пишет:

ЦитироватьAlexio пишет:
Интересно, как поведут себя батареи 18650 в вакууме? В них есть отверстие для сброса давления или они достаточно прочные?

ЦитироватьТак как конструкция всех современных аккумуляторов 18650 предусматривает наличие клапана, который сбрасывает внутреннее давление в случае неполадки, то есть, не дает ему, собственно, взорваться. И это уже важный факт. Отверстия этого клапана видны на плюсовом контакте.

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:


Масса ПН - 1305 кг.

снаряженная масса автомобиля – 1238 кг.

Возможно, что 67кг - это вес доп. оборудования.

ЦитироватьAlexio пишет:
Интересно, как поведут себя батареи 18650 в вакууме?

Цитировать SpaceX‏Подлинная учетная запись @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) 35 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/948376057882619904)

With more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff—equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft at full power—Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. http://instagram.com/p/BdeEU2glMJT (https://t.co/NneqPRPr46)

Цитировать SpaceX‏Подлинная учетная запись @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) 12 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/948382592599916544)

More photos of Falcon Heavy on the launch pad → http://flickr.com/spacex  (https://t.co/095WHX44BX)

Спойлер

[свернуть]

ЦитироватьPIN пишет:

ЦитироватьAlexio пишет:
Интересно, как поведут себя батареи 18650 в вакууме?

Это один из самых популярных элементов для АКБ космических аппаратов. Температуру, да, нужно поддерживать в соответствующем диапазоне. А вакуум вообще ни при чем...

Цитироватьopinion пишет:

На nsf пишут, для того чтобы поставить на теслу передатчик требуется разрешение FCC, а его никто не получал. Поэтому и батарея там ни к чему.

Цитировать Elon Musk‏Подлинная учетная запись @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) 28 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/949075475036487680)

Falcon Heavy goes vertical

Video (https://twitter.com/i/videos/tweet/949075475036487680)

Цитировать Elon Musk‏Подлинная учетная запись @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) 29 мин.
 назад (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/949075535459528705)


Video (https://twitter.com/i/videos/tweet/949075535459528705)

Цитировать (https://www.instagram.com/elonmusk/) elonmusk (https://www.instagram.com/elonmusk/) Verified

elonmusk (https://www.instagram.com/elonmusk/)
Falcon Heavy now vertical on the former Apollo 11 moon rocket launchpad. At 2500 tons of thrust, equal to 18 Boeing 747 aircraft at full throttle, it will be the most powerful rocket in the world by a factor of two. Excitement on launch day guaranteed, one way or another.

Hold-down test fire next week. Launch end of the month.

https://scontent-arn2-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/f5ac0b0b223cb455f4c004ef978269d5/5A5208BC/t50.2886-16/26680377_1982240475324523_1200208179707772928_n.mp4 (https://scontent-arn2-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/f5ac0b0b223cb455f4c004ef978269d5/5A5208BC/t50.2886-16/26680377_1982240475324523_1200208179707772928_n.mp4)
(Video (0:27) (https://scontent-arn2-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/f5ac0b0b223cb455f4c004ef978269d5/5A5208BC/t50.2886-16/26680377_1982240475324523_1200208179707772928_n.mp4))

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:
Очередной сдвиг на конец января. Радует, что вновь подняли для тестов. Прожиг переехал на следующую неделю.

ЦитироватьLRV_75 пишет:
А когда будет контрольная заправка?
В этот раз это планировалось не как процедура в рамках прожига, а отдельный вид испытаний и планировался за несколько дней до прожига пакета в сборе

ЦитироватьAstro Cat пишет:

ЦитироватьLRV_75 пишет:
А когда будет контрольная заправка?
В этот раз это планировалось не как процедура в рамках прожига, а отдельный вид испытаний и планировался за несколько дней до прожига пакета в сборе

Ну, видимо, после запуска Зумы? Если она улетит таки 6го, то 7-8 числа? И если что-то пойдет не так то уедет далее.

ЦитироватьSpaceX FH Demo - Simulation of 2 boosters returning side by side.

   (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxK2xRWY2jsE4vDmaMuopUg) Jay DeShetler (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxK2xRWY2jsE4vDmaMuopUg)

Опубликовано: 7 янв. 2018 г.

FH Demo - Simulation of 2 boosters returning side by side.

Цитироватьtnt22 пишет:
SpaceX FH Demo - Simulation of 2 boosters returning side by side.

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:
Zuma запустили, теперь нет повода чтобы не готовиться к запуску FH.

ЦитироватьЗловредный пишет:
Тут говорят, FH снова вывезли.

Цитировать Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) 2 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/950404585667035136)

And here comes Falcon Heavy again, this time rolling out for the Static Fire test this week.

Цитировать Susan‏ @Luindriel (https://twitter.com/Luindriel) 2 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/Luindriel/status/950394168404258817)

NASA bus tour. @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) Heavy is inching its way out of the hangar.

Цитировать Mike Killian‏ @KillianPhoto (https://twitter.com/KillianPhoto) 5 ч назад (https://twitter.com/KillianPhoto/status/950437582365712389)

#SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash) wasting no time, less than 24 hours after launching ZUMA the #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) is back on 39A for testing this week, aiming for launch later this month.

Цитировать Spaceflight Now‏ @SpaceflightNow (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow) 4 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/950558453520584704)

The Falcon Heavy rocket is going vertical at launch complex 39A ahead of an engine test planned for this week.

ЦитироватьChris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) · 9m (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/950743628573560834)

Big girl is vertical on the pad. No confirmed test window yet....though the likely opening opportunity will be Wednesday. Remember, as you can appreciate, this is like three Static Fires at the same time. Prop loading three cores and firing up 27 engines. #PatienceRequired (https://twitter.com/hashtag/PatienceRequired?src=hash)

ЦитироватьAmericaSpace‏ @AmericaSpace (https://twitter.com/AmericaSpace) · 5m (https://twitter.com/AmericaSpace/status/950745522071097344)

#FALCONHEAVY (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FALCONHEAVY?src=hash) is back vertical atop pad 39A at KSC this morning, aiming for test fire this week.

Цитироватьche wi пишет:

ЦитироватьAmericaSpace ‏ @AmericaSpace · 5m (https://twitter.com/AmericaSpace/status/950745522071097344)

 #FALCONHEAVY (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FALCONHEAVY?src=hash) is back vertical atop pad 39A at KSC this morning, aiming for test fire this week.

ЦитироватьEmre Kelly @EmreKelly (https://twitter.com/EmreKelly) · 25m (https://twitter.com/EmreKelly/status/950761870985658368)

#FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) status update: SpaceX scheduled to attempt test fire between 1300 and 1900 Wednesday. Looking forward to the brief rumble.

Цитировать Julia‏ @julia_bergeron (https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron) 26 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron/status/950765636757704704)

Falcon Heavy vertical at 39A today in prep. for Wednesday's static test fire attempt between 1300 and 1900. Seen from the @ExploreSpaceKSC (https://twitter.com/ExploreSpaceKSC) bus tour. As big as the Heavy is, the tower still blocks the view of the rocket from the Saturn V center.

Цитировать Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) 24 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/950783238481563649)

ARTICLE: SpaceX to static fire Falcon Heavy as early as Wednesday

- https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/01/spacex-static-fire-falcon-heavy-1/ ... (https://t.co/aaG9IaXW3H)

- by Chris Gebhardt (@ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF))

Спойлер

[свернуть]

ЦитироватьLive coverage: First Falcon Heavy prepped for critical test-firing
January 9, 2018 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/01/) Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)

Live coverage of SpaceX's preparations for the first Falcon Heavy launch from pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/spaceflightnow/).


SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket pictured on launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

ЦитироватьUpdated: 01/09/2018 20:16

SpaceX's first Falcon Heavy rocket has been raised vertical at pad 39A for the second time in advance of a planned hold-down test-firing of its main engines tomorrow during a window that extends from 1-7 pm EST (1800-0000 GMT). Kennedy Space Center employees were told to expect an estimated 15-second firing.

Спойлер

The company plans to launch the heavy-lift rocket on a demonstration flight later this month.

The static fire is a key milestone in the launch campaign, and it will be the first time the fully-assembled Falcon Heavy -- with three first stage booster cores and 27 Merlin engines -- will be test-fired.

Each of the three first stage boosters, modified from SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket design, has been test-fired individually. The two side boosters were recovered and refurbished following Falcon 9 launches in 2016.

Check out our previous coverage (https://spaceflightnow.com/category/falcon-heavy/) of the Falcon Heavy's demo flight, including photo galleries, news stories and status reports.

[свернуть]

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:
Перед прожигом. HI-res скрин.

Цитироватьдолжны отстреляться до запуска ses-16, т.е. до 31 января.

Цитироватьknezevolk пишет:
Это такая шутка неудачная в группе.

ЦитироватьBlackMokona пишет:
Тогда уж сразу, Маск отправил стартовый стол для FH на Марс.

ЦитироватьДем пишет:

Цитироватьinstml пишет:
1) с чего вдруг на этой Тесле будет присутствовать штатная батарея, которая при этом будет питать электричеством всё остальное?

1) А смысл демонтировать - мы что по массе не вписываемся?
.

ЦитироватьСергио пишет:
батарея может бабахнуть.

ЦитироватьHowever, as of Wednesday morning, teams of workers were seen at the base of the pad, pointing to more work taking place, delaying the test to Thursday.

... it is now understood that the static fire will last an impressive 12 seconds ...

Цитировать01/11/2018 20:56   Stephen Clark

The Falcon Heavy's static fire test has been scrubbed for the day after SpaceX's launch team loaded propellants into the heavy-lifter for the first time at pad 39A.

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:
https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-first-static-fire-test-cape-canaveral-scrubbed/

Якобы перенос прожига из-за ненадежность удерживающего устройства на стартовом столе.

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:
https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-first-static-fire-test-cape-canaveral-scrubbed/

Якобы перенос прожига из-за ненадежность удерживающего устройства на стартовом столе.

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
А какая суммарная тяга будет?

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:
Вид FH сверху

ЦитироватьFH сбоку, FH снизу, FH сверху, ..., FH вокруг...

ЦитироватьЕвгений Кравченко пишет:
FH сбоку, FH снизу, FH сверху, ..., FH вокруг...
 Главное, что не изнутри

ЦитироватьJulia‏ @julia_bergeron (https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron)

@julia_bergeron

My best guess for #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) static fire is that it will now wait till Friday. @ulalaunch (https://twitter.com/ulalaunch) is scheduled for a Thurs evening Atlas launch. With rollout tomorrow, Atlas will have the ball for ground support needs and safety perimeter.

ЦитироватьСергей пишет:
FH против NG в перспективе не катит

ЦитироватьПлейшнер пишет:
В доставке чего и куда они будут состязаться?

ЦитироватьAlex_II пишет:
Особенно мне любопытно куда Безос собирается применять свои тяжелые и многоразовые ракеты...

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:
Парные пуски на ГПО, Oneweb и подобные группировки,

ЦитироватьПлейшнер пишет:

ЦитироватьСергей пишет:
FH против NG в перспективе не катит

В доставке чего и куда они будут состязаться?

ЦитироватьAlex_II пишет:

ЦитироватьПлейшнер пишет:
В доставке чего и куда они будут состязаться?

Интересный между прочим вопрос... Особенно мне любопытно куда Безос собирается применять свои тяжелые и многоразовые ракеты...

ЦитироватьChilik пишет:
No news is good news ©

Цитировать01/20/2018 00:00
 Stephen Clark
The hold-down firing of the Falcon Heavy's 27 main engines at pad 39A is now expected no earlier than Monday. A fueling test is likely on tap for Saturday.

ЦитироватьGeorgea пишет:
С темпами Безоса по созданию Нью Шепарда - полагаю, что Нью Гленн вы увидим еще оооочень нескоро. Если вообще.

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:
01/20/2018 00:00
 Stephen Clark
The hold-down firing of the Falcon Heavy's 27 main engines at pad 39A is now expected no earlier than Monday. A fueling test is likely on tap for Saturday.

ЦитироватьSpaceX still targeting Saturday for #FalconHeavy test fire at pad 39A, but timing has shifted: Six-hour window opens at 1730 ET (2230 UTC).

ЦитироватьV.B. пишет:
Есть и такая инфа (https://twitter.com/EmreKelly/status/954662467120099329) :

ЦитироватьSpaceX still targeting Saturday for #FalconHeavy test fire at pad 39A, but timing has shifted: Six-hour window opens at 1730 ET (2230 UTC).

ЦитироватьV.B. пишет:
Если заправка пройдет успешно, что им стоит зажечь? Только чиркнуть спичкой - и вуаля  :)

ЦитироватьMike Killian‏ @KillianPhoto (https://twitter.com/KillianPhoto) · 31m (https://twitter.com/KillianPhoto/status/954743527937847297)

CONFIRMED from one of our trusted sources at KSC, today is only a WDR for the #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) on 39A, there will be NO static test fire today.

ЦитироватьThe venting from the Falcon Heavy at pad 39A is no longer visible, so today's fueling test is likely over. SpaceX is currently targeting Monday for a hold-down firing of the Falcon Heavy's 27 main engines, but the static fire test's schedule depends on the outcome of tonight's activities

Цитировать Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF)
Chris G - NSF Ретвитнул(а) Greg Pallone
#FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) static fire update: This is what I thought originally. According to tweet below, the @45thSpaceWing (https://twitter.com/45thSpaceWing) confirms that during U.S. government shutdown, they cannot support #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash)'s static fire of the #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash). Static fire was set for tomorrow. Let's see what happens.

Цитировать  Greg Pallone‏Подлинная учетная запись @gpallone13 (https://twitter.com/gpallone13)
NO LAUNCHES: per @45thSpaceWing (https://twitter.com/45thSpaceWing) key members of civilian workforce are removed due to govt shutdown. 45th cannot support @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) commerical static fire tests @NASAKennedy (https://twitter.com/NASAKennedy) or launch operations @MyNews13 (https://twitter.com/MyNews13)
 
  8:43 - 21 янв. 2018 г.

Цитировать  Emre Kelly‏Подлинная учетная запись @EmreKelly (https://twitter.com/EmreKelly)
Confirmed: No SpaceX #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) static test fire due to government shutdown. Same goes for launches. Statement: "Due to the shutdown removing key members of the civilian workforce, the 45th Space Wing will not be able to support commercial static fires taking place on KSC."
  13:22 - 21 янв. 2018 г.  

ЦитироватьSalo пишет: 

ЦитироватьПуск не ранее начала февраля.

ЦитироватьSalo пишет:

ЦитироватьEmre Kelly ‏Подлинная учетная запись @ EmreKelly
Confirmed: No SpaceX # FalconHeavy static test fire due to government shutdown. Same goes for launches. Statement: "Due to the shutdown removing key members of the civilian workforce, the 45th Space Wing will not be able to support commercial static fires taking place on KSC."
 13:22 - 21 янв. 2018 г.

Цитировать  Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF)  1 ч.1 час назад (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/955504294442229763)  
Chris G - NSF Ретвитнул(а) Chris G - NSF
#FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) static fire update: See my tweet thread below on the process that is still ahead for reopening the U.S. government and what #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash) will have on tap this week if the government reopens later today/tonight. In short, no schedule yet; everything still fluid.

Цитировать  (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/955499311160352769)  
 Chris G - NSF @ChrisG_NSF
Senate has voted on an amended bill to fund U.S. government for 3 weeks. Bill now heads back to the House for debate & vote. If it passes the House without changes, the President then needs to sign it into law. Once all those things happen, the government reopens. Then... 1/2

Цитировать  Greg Pallone‏Подлинная учетная запись @gpallone13 (https://twitter.com/gpallone13)
KSC IS CLOSED @NASAKennedy (https://twitter.com/NASAKennedy) shutters & workers furloughed as government shutdown looms. More at 5 pm @MyNews13 (https://twitter.com/MyNews13)
 
 
 
  12:27 - 22 янв. 2018 г.  

Цитировать  Jonathan McDowell‏Подлинная учетная запись @planet4589 (https://twitter.com/planet4589)
And the shutdown is over!
  15:12 - 22 янв. 2018 г.

ЦитироватьSalo пишет:

ЦитироватьJonathan McDowell ‏Подлинная учетная запись @ planet4589
And the shutdown is over!
 15:12 - 22 янв. 2018 г.

Цитировать01/23/2018 15:08 Stephen Clark

The hold-down firing of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy is now expected no earlier than Wednesday. The test window opens at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT).

Цитировать  Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF)  21 мин.21 минуту назад (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/955870765844500483)  
#FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) static fire update: Static fire is planned for tomorrow, Wed., 1/24, in a test window from 12:00-18:00 EST (17:00-23:00 UTC). This will be a Wet Dress Rehearsal that IF everything is perfect will roll forward into a 12-second static firing. 5 million lbs of thrust!

ЦитироватьНу-и-ну пишет:
В апреле 2011 казалось, что до пуска оставался примерно год-полтора

ЦитироватьAlex_II пишет:
от первоначального ФХ

Цитироватьopinion пишет:
Что-то кроме ветра ничего не было слышно.

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
ну и каков результат... ракета стоит

ЦитироватьKSC source says that SpaceX is targeting February 6 for the launch, if the static fire goes well.

ЦитироватьPirat5 пишет:
Видео SF: https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/956236301275054080

Мощно! Но как-то нифига не 12секунд он длится.

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
Launching in a week or so.

ЦитироватьPirat5 пишет:
KSC source says that SpaceX is targeting February 6 for the launch, if the static fire goes well.

ЦитироватьFalcon Heavy Demo | Static Fire

   (https://www.youtube.com/user/spacexchannel) SpaceX (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtI0Hodo5o5dUb67FeUjDeA)

Опубликовано: 24 янв. 2018 г.

On Wednesday, Jan. 24th, 2018 SpaceX completed the first static fire test of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. When Falcon Heavy lifts off, it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two.

Цитироватьtnt22 пишет:
Официальное видео SFT

ЦитироватьOn its first flight, the Falcon Heavy will generate about 4.7 million pounds of thrust at launch. Musk said the first Falcon Heavy's engines will be throttled to 92 percent of full power.
That will make the Falcon Heavy the most powerful rocket flying today, exceeding the European Ariane 5 launcher, the world's leader in liftoff power at 2.9 million pound of thrust from two segmented solid rocket boosters and a core engine. SpaceX's new rocket will produce more thrust than any launch vehicle since the space shuttle.

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:
Полное видео по ссылке

ЦитироватьOleg пишет:
Как думаете, укрытие для зрителей на случай ЧП есть?

ЦитироватьV.B. пишет:
Начали продажу билетов (https://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/launches-and-events/events-calendar/2018/january/rocket-launch-spacex-falcon-heavy) , без объявленной даты.

ЦитироватьЗловредный пишет:

Цитироватьtnt22 пишет:
Официальное видео SFT

И это меньше, чем 12 секунд. Даже меньше, чем 10.

ЦитироватьV.B. пишет:
И что-то мне кажется, что Маску уже надоело тянуть кота за хвост. Думаю, в выходные 3-4 февраля запустит!

ЦитироватьLaunch date, per the current plan:

NET Feb 6th with backup on the 7th.

Launch window each day is 13:30-16:30 EST.

Цитироватьus2-star пишет:
И что мы имеем при старте 6 февраля, 21:30 – 00:30 мск. ?
Кто-то, когда-то, где-то, пользовался https://trajbrowser.arc.nasa.gov/index.php ...

ЦитироватьV.B. пишет:
или просто куда-нибудь, лишь бы улетела на 1,5 а.е.

ЦитироватьАртём Жаров пишет:
6 февраля

Цитировать Elon Musk‏Подлинная учетная запись @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) 8 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/957361443023695872)

Aiming for first flight of Falcon Heavy on Feb 6 from Apollo launchpad 39A at Cape Kennedy. Easy viewing from the public causeway.

Цитировать Robin Seemangal‏Подлинная учетная запись @nova_road (https://twitter.com/nova_road) 2 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/nova_road/status/957643700359835650)

Answers to Falcon Heavy FAQ:

-Media credentialing is closed
-Those who applied will have email soon
-Close viewing spots sold out at KSCVC
-Public viewing available on nearby causeway
-Launch is 2/6, 3-hr window opens 1:30PM E
-Roadster going to elliptic Mars orbit
-Not TO Mars

Цитироватьtnt22 пишет:
- Roadster going to elliptic Mars orbit
- Not TO Mars

ЦитироватьВиктор Воропаев пишет:

Цитироватьtnt22 пишет:
- Roadster going to elliptic Mars orbit
- Not TO Mars

[...]

Цитироватьtnt22 пишет:

ЦитироватьRobin Seemangal ‏Подлинная учетная запись @ nova_road 2 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/nova_road/status/957643700359835650)

Answers to Falcon Heavy FAQ:

- Roadster going to elliptic Mars orbit
- Not TO Mars

Цитировать- Not TO Mars

ЦитироватьСергио пишет:
я где то слышал что ракету можно заправлять не более 3х раз. заправил, наддул, слил. заправил наддул слил. украл выпил в тюрму.
для статик тест - получается тоже заправка, только частичная. у Фалькона - больше ресурс? или частичная заправка на катит?
(Союзу можно такие статик тесты делать?)

ЦитироватьСергио пишет:
я где то слышал что ракету можно заправлять не более 3х раз.

ЦитироватьСергио пишет:
я где то слышал что ракету можно заправлять не более 3х раз

Цитироватьслышал что ракету можно заправлять не более 3х раз

Цитировать (https://www.instagram.com/elonmusk/) elonmusk (https://www.instagram.com/elonmusk/)Подтвержденный •

[/li]
• elonmusk (https://www.instagram.com/elonmusk/)Falcon Heavy, launching Tuesday, in foreground and Falcon 9, launching tomorrow, in background
  

Спойлер

https://scontent-arn2-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/5a386d4e3c21b87189350d4b836962bd/5B1E6660/t51.2885-15/e35/26869502_2017524405155582_3944872730607747072_n.jpg


https://scontent-arn2-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/135e2e11c5534b544dbc3cec054cd142/5B1C0C28/t51.2885-15/e35/26865581_126214218191783_4686289063487995904_n.jpg

[свернуть]

Цитировать Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF) 12 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/958461050864701440)

#FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) FAQ update: A 1 day launch slip for #GovSat1 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/GovSat1?src=hash) does NOT impact Falcon Heavy's target date.

Цитировать Elon Musk‏Подлинная учетная запись @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) 12 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/959902950964453376)

Falcon Heavy launch simulation almost ready. Will be set to Bowie's Life on Mars.

ЦитироватьV.B. пишет:
OCISLY вчера вечером вышел из порта Канаверал

Цитировать Emre Kelly‏Подлинная учетная запись @EmreKelly (https://twitter.com/EmreKelly) 20 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/EmreKelly/status/959609928016154624)

So it begins.

Цитировать18:10 - 2 февр. 2018 г.  (https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron/status/959593289300217856)


Julia @julia_bergeron
Look who left Port Canaveral at 6:30 tonight- #OCISLY ! Getting ready for Falcon Heavy @ChrisG_NSF @NASASpaceflight

Цитировать18:43 - 2 февр. 2018 г.  (https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/959610092512595968)

Michael Baylor @nextspaceflight
В ответ @EmreKelly

That was a false alarm. For some reason, it returned to port shortly after. Julia is heading over to check it out.

Emre Kelly‏Подлинная учетная запись @EmreKelly (https://twitter.com/EmreKelly) 19 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/EmreKelly/status/959618433255165952)

Noted. Thanks!

Цитировать Julia‏ @julia_bergeron (https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron) 20 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron/status/959605242458501122)

And apparently came back to Port Canaveral an hour later...going to check things out...

Цитировать Julia‏ @julia_bergeron (https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron) 19 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron/status/959624880269479936)

Everybody wave good bye! Happy trails OCISLY. She officially just left the dock with Hawk to head out of Port Canaveral. Again. #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) #ItHasBegun (https://twitter.com/hashtag/ItHasBegun?src=hash)


17 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron/status/959661162471329792)

A parting view of OCISLY leaving @PortCanaveral (https://twitter.com/PortCanaveral) tonight. Another step closer to the upcoming Falcon Heavy launch. @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX)


10 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron/status/959767481241014272)

Look who came back to Port Canaveral now that OCISLY left the dock. Go Searcher appears to still be out and about. I can't run to see what may be happening today. Maybe @murphypak (https://twitter.com/murphypak) will be out around town.

Цитировать Joey Roulette‏ @JRouRouRou (https://twitter.com/JRouRouRou) 5 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/JRouRouRou/status/959836734707175427)

It's not everyday you see an FAA license say "transporting the modified Tesla roadster to hyperbolic orbit." The official launch license is out and Falcon Heavy's maiden flight is still set for this Tuesday, 1:30 p.m.

Цитировать Stephen C. Smith‏ @WordsmithFL (https://twitter.com/WordsmithFL) 4 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/WordsmithFL/status/959865124570923009)

I spy with my @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) eye ... no #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) on Pad 39A.

ЦитироватьSpaceX receives commercial launch license for first Falcon Heavy flight
February 4, 2018 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/) |
 Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)


Credit: SpaceX

The Federal Aviation Administration has approved a launch license for SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket set for blastoff Tuesday, giving the U.S. government's regulatory green light for the heavy-lifter to dispatch Elon Musk's used electric sports car on a one-way trip into deep space.

Dated Feb. 2, the FAA launch license clears a final regulatory hurdle for the Falcon Heavy's test launch from pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The launch window Tuesday opens at 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT) and extends until 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT).

Спойлер

The official weather forecast issued Sunday by the U.S. Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron predicts an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions during Tuesday's launch window.

"On Tuesday, winds will become easterly at 15 mph, bringing a few low-level clouds in off the water," forecasters wrote in Sunday's outlook. "The main weather concerns are liftoff winds and thick clouds. Maximum upper-level winds will be from the west at 90 knots near 40,000 feet."

Made up of three rocket boosters derived from SpaceX's Falcon 9 launcher, the triple-core Falcon Heavy will produce more thrust than any rocket currently flying, and the most by any vehicle since the space shuttle.

The commercial launch license approved by the FAA gives SpaceX authorization to launch the Falcon Heavy rocket "transporting the modified Tesla Roadster (mass simulator) to a hyperbolic orbit."

SpaceX plans to boost the electric car with enough speed to escape the bonds of Earth's gravity, steering the Roadster on a "hyperbolic" trajectory away from the planet into a heliocentric orbit around the sun. The orbit will take the automobile as far as the distance of Mars.

The Tesla Roadster weighs about 2,760 pounds (1,250 kilograms), measures nearly 13 feet (3.9 meters) long and spans about 5.7 feet (1.7 meters) wide, according to Car and Driver magazine.

Photos of the Tesla Roadster released by SpaceX show it dwarfed by the size of the launcher's clamshell-like payload shroud, which extends 43 feet (13.1 meters) tall and 17 feet (5.2 meters) in diameter.

SpaceX claims the Falcon Heavy can haul 140,660 pounds (63,800 kilograms) into low Earth orbit a few hundred miles up, up to 37,040 pounds (16,800 kilograms) to Mars, or 7,720 pounds (3,500 kilograms) to Pluto. A Falcon Heavy mission sells for around $90 million, the company says on its website.

Those numbers assume SpaceX will not recover any of the Falcon Heavy's boosters. The fuel reserve required for landings will diminish the rocket's performance.

For comparison, the Delta 4-Heavy rocket, operated by SpaceX rival United Launch Alliance, can haul up to 63,471 pounds (28,790 kilograms) to a low-altitude orbit approximately 120 miles (200 kilometers) above Earth when launched to the east from Cape Canaveral, according to a launch vehicle data sheet published by ULA.

NASA's planned Space Launch System, set for a maiden flight in late 2019 or early 2020, will carry more than 154,000 pounds (70,000 kilograms) to low Earth orbit and produce a maximum thrust of 8.8 million pounds. A souped-up model of the SLS with an enlarged upper stage launching in the early 2020s could haul more than 230,000 pounds (105 metric tons) to low Earth orbit.

The SLS is being designed with surplus space shuttle engine and booster components, and the space agency intends to use the multibillion-dollar mega-rocket to send astronaut crews to the moon, and eventually beyond.

The Tesla Roadster's weight and dimensions fall well under the Falcon Heavy's capacity, and would not stress the lift capability of SpaceX's smaller, single-core Falcon 9 rocket or Atlas, Delta and Ariane boosters operated by rivals United Launch Alliance and Arianespace.

"I love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future," Musk tweeted in December.

Musk said the midnight cherry red Tesla Roadster, which sells for $200,000 brand new, will be playing David Bowie's iconic hit "Space Oddity" as it soars into the cosmos.

Whimsical passengers are nothing new for SpaceX. The company's first Dragon capsule test flight carried a wheel of cheese to Earth orbit and back, a nod to a "Monty Python" comedy sketch.

The restrictions of interplanetary travel, which require precise alignments between the planets, will keep the Roadster well away from Mars, assuaging concerns that the car could inadvertently crash into the red planet.

The FAA license "includes landing of the Falcon Heavy first stage core and side boosters as indicated in the license application," officials wrote in the document. "A flight is concluded upon SpaceX's last exercise of control over the Falcon Heavy vehicle, including the safing of Falcon Heavy vehicle stages or components that reach a hyperbolic orbit."

The license requires SpaceX to hold $110 million in third-party liability insurance — or "otherwise demonstrate financial responsibility" — to cover property damages from a potential launch accident, roughly two to three times the FAA's insurance requirement for a Falcon 9 launch from pad 39A.

SpaceX must also hold $100 million in government property insurance, along with $72 million to cover claims from damage incurred during Falcon Heavy pre-flight operations at the Kennedy Space Center.

Most of the FAA's commercial launch licenses are granted for missions with destinations in Earth orbit, but the Falcon Heavy's is not the first for a flight departing the planet entirely.

An Athena rocket launched under the FAA's licensing authority in 1998 with the Lunar Prospector probe sent to orbit the moon, and a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket launched into polar orbit under FAA oversight in 2016 with a commercial Earth observation satellite, then the Atlas 5's Centaur upper stage reignited to head on an Earth escape trajectory into heliocentric orbit.

NASA and U.S. military payloads riding on ULA and SpaceX rockets, such as Mars rovers and other interplanetary probes, do not need an FAA launch license.

SpaceX developed the Falcon Heavy to lift heavier payloads into space than the company's Falcon 9 rocket, and to compete with other heavy-lifters for contracts to haul massive spacecraft for the U.S. military and NASA. The Falcon Heavy may also find a niche in deploying large commercial satellites, or launching clusters of smaller spacecraft to support the build-out of planned broadband communications networks.

But going into Tuesday's test flight, only three Falcon Heavy missions are confirmed in SpaceX's backlog after the test launch: Two for commercial telecom companies Arabsat and ViaSat, and one for the Air Force. Another company, Inmarsat, has an option to launch a future satellite on a Falcon Heavy.

Some customers that reserved launches on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket switched their satellites to the smaller Falcon 9, which benefited from multiple thrust and performance upgrades to carry some payloads that originally required the triple-core rocket.

Inmarsat and Intelsat had planned launches on the Falcon Heavy, but both ended up flying their satellites on the Falcon 9. The ViaSat 2 satellite built to provide high-speed Internet access across the United States was supposed to launch on a Falcon Heavy, but the firm move its launch to a European Ariane 5 rocket, citing schedule worries. ViaSat retained its contract with SpaceX to launch a future satellite on a Falcon Heavy.

Powering off the launch pad with 4.7 million pounds of thrust from 27 Merlin main engines, the Falcon Heavy will head to the east from Florida's Space Coast on a trajectory arcing over the Atlantic Ocean. Its two side boosters — modified Falcon 9 rocket cores recovered after previous launches — will shut down and fall away a couple of minutes into the flight.

The side-mounted rockets will fire cold-gas nitrogen thrusters to flip around and fly tail-first, before reigniting to head for automated touchdowns at SpaceX's landing complex at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station around 9 miles (13 kilometers) south of pad 39A.

Twin sonic booms will crack across the spaceport as the boosters return to Cape Canaveral for staggered landings, slowed with the help of rocket thrust.

The rocket's center core, stiffened to withstand the extra loads of a Falcon Heavy launch, will head for touchdown on SpaceX's drone ship positioned downrange in the Atlantic Ocean..

The Falcon Heavy weighs more than 3.1 million pounds (1.4 million kilograms) fully loaded with kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants. Most of that propellant weight will be consumed in the first few minutes of the flight.

Tuesday's launch promises to put on a spectacular show for spectators at the Florida spaceport. The Falcon Heavy's ground-shaking thrust, coupled with the untried dual landings, should make for a memorable one-two punch for rocket geeks gathered on beaches and causeways surrounding Cape Canaveral.

Musk unveiled the Falcon Heavy rocket in 2011, and proclaimed then the launcher would be ready for blastoff in 2013. SpaceX said it slowed development of the Falcon Heavy to focus on other projects, including the recovery of Falcon 9 rocket stages for reuse, and to resolve technical problems that destroyed two Falcon 9 rockets in 2015 and 2016, one in flight and another on the launch pad.

Musk announced in September his upd ated vision for settling Mars — SpaceX's ultimate mission — and announced that his company is working on a giant new rocket dubbed the BFR that could send cargo and crew ships to the red planet, or perhaps the moon if a lunar base becomes reality.

The Falcon Heavy's long road to liftoff turned out to be a bigger challenge than expected, and Musk has done his best to downplay expectations.

"At first it sounds real easy, you just stick two first stages on as strap-on boosters, but then everything changes," Musk said in remarks at a space conference in July. "All the loads change, aerodynamics totally change. You've tripled the vibration and acoustics. You sort of break the qualification levels on so much of the hardware."

A critical hotfire test Jan. 24 was the first time all 27 of the Falcon Heavy's engines ignited together. SpaceX does not have a test stand at its Central Texas development site to support such a high-thrust firing.

"This is one of those things that's really difficult to test on the ground," Musk said in July. "We can fire the engines on the ground, and we can try to simulate the dynamics of having 27 instead of nine booster engines, and the airflow as it goes through transonic (as it exceeds the speed of sound). It's going to see heavy transonic buffet. How does it behave at Max-Q (maximum dynamic pressure)?

"There's a lot of risk associated with Falcon Heavy, a real good chance that that vehicle does not make it to orbit," Musk said, referring to the inaugural test launch. "I want to make sure to se t expectations accordingly. I hope it makes it far enough beyond the pad so that it does not cause pad damage. I would consider even that a win, to be honest."

The energy generated by the Falcon Heavy's 27 main engines will eclipse the 2.9 million pounds of thrust produced by the European Ariane 5 rocket, the current world leader in liftoff thrust, and will put out more than double the power of a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy launcher at liftoff.

Overall, the Falcon Heavy is slated to produce the fourth-highest thrust level of any rocket in history, surpassed by the Soviet Union's N1 moon rocket, which never had a fully successful launch, NASA's Apollo-era Saturn 5 launcher, the Russian Energia rocket and the space shuttle.

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ЦитироватьSpaceflight Now‏ @SpaceflightNow (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow) 57 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/960414221405220864)

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket has emerged from its hangar and rolled up the ramp to launch pad 39A in Florida ahead of liftoff scheduled for Tuesday. https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/05/falcon-heavy-demo-flight-mission-status-center/ ... (https://t.co/j9nQKPiCdX)

Спойлер

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ЦитироватьLive coverage: Falcon Heavy readied for maiden launch Tuesday
February 5, 2018 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/) | Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of SpaceX's first Falcon Heavy rocket from pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/spaceflightnow/).

02/05/2018 05:33 Stephen Clark

The Federal Aviation Administration has approved a launch license for SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket set for blastoff Tuesday, giving the U.S. government's regulatory green light for the heavy-lifter to dispatch Elon Musk's used electric sports car on a one-way trip into deep space.

Спойлер

Dated Feb. 2, the FAA launch license clears a final regulatory hurdle for the Falcon Heavy's test launch from pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The launch window Tuesday opens at 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT) and extends until 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT).

The official weather forecast issued Sunday by the U.S. Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron predicts an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions during Tuesday's launch window.

Read our full story. (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/04/spacex-receives-commercial-launch-license-for-first-falcon-heavy-flight/)

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02/05/2018 10:06 Stephen Clark


The Falcon Heavy rocket has rolled out of its hangar and made its way up the ramp at launch pad 39A in preparation for Tuesday's launch.

Спойлер

Riding a transporter/erector on rail tracks leading up the pathway formerly used by Saturn 5 moon rockets and space shuttles, the Falcon Heavy emerged from SpaceX's hangar and began rolling up the incline to pad 39A around 12 a.m. EST (0500 GMT).

The SpaceX ground team is expected to engage hydraulic pistons to raise the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket vertical later Monday, once it arrives atop the launch mount at pad 39A.

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02/05/2018 10:25 Stephen Clark

The Falcon Heavy has now arrived at its launch mount at pad 39A.

Цитировать

FALCON HEAVY TEST FLIGHT

The first test flight of Falcon Heavy is targeted for Tuesday, Feb. 6th from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. When Falcon Heavy lifts off, it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two.

With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)---a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel--Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost.

Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9. Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars.

ЦитироватьНа сайте SpaceX

spacex.com/webcast (http://www.spacex.com/webcast)

или

на ТыТрубе

youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c)

Цитировать02/05/2018 16:54 Spaceflight Now

Falcon Heavy is being lifted into position at launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

Цитировать02/05/2018 17:29 Stephen Clark

The latest weather forecast issued by the U.S. Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron continues to indicate an 80 percent probability of favorable weather tomorrow for the Falcon Heavy test launch.

Спойлер

"Cloudy skies should give way to some sunshine and northerly winds later today as a boundary moves south of the Space Coast," the weather team wrote in the outlook released this morning. "Tomorrow, winds will become easterly at 15 mph, bringing a few low-level clouds in off the water. The main weather concerns are liftoff winds and thick clouds. Maximum upper-level winds will be from the west at 90 knots near 40,000 feet."

Conditions at launch time should be mostly sunny, with a few clouds at 2,500 feet and scattered clouds at 15,000 feet. Winds will be from the east at 12 to 17 mph, and visibility is predicted to be 7 miles. The temperature at launch time should be around 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

An approach frontal system will likely bring more clouds to Central Florida on Wednesday. If the Falcon Heavy does not take off Tuesday, forecasters predict a 70 percent chance of good weather Wednesday.

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ЦитироватьBrady Kenniston‏ @TheFavoritist (https://twitter.com/TheFavoritist) 9 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/TheFavoritist/status/960534176683384832)

Falcon Heavy is vertical @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight)! We have remote setup in just a few hours. This is going to be a blast!

ЦитироватьThaddeus Cesari‏ @ThaddeusCes (https://twitter.com/ThaddeusCes) 21 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/ThaddeusCes/status/960560111461785601)

Official from #spacex (https://twitter.com/hashtag/spacex?src=hash) - Pre launch conference call set with @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) at roughly 2pm EDT today to speak about #falconheavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/falconheavy?src=hash)

ЦитироватьElon Musk‏Подлинная учетная запись @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) 19 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/960589757519663105)

All systems remain green for launch at 1:30pm EST tomorrow

ЦитироватьChris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) 34 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/960586481067806720)

Elon to hold a media event at 3:30 p.m. EST - so more details then!

Цитироватьtnt22 пишет:
This is going to be a blast!

ЦитироватьThe separation will occur at a higher velocity than is usually seen on single stick Falcon 9 flights given the extra power and performance from three boosters working together for over two minutes.

ЦитироватьJeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust) 26 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960626189957255169)

Musk: doing a six-hour coast before final second-stage burn; going through Van Allen Belts. Also fuel could freeze or oxygen lost.

25 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960626720238956546)

Musk: Tesla will be placed into a heliocentric orbit and become a Earth-Mars cycler; only extremely tiny chance of hitting Mars in foreseeable future.

21 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960627584752119808)

Musk: one area of concern is relative interactions of the three booster cores; could be resonance or shockwave impingement. Once second stage separates, we're in much more known territory other than long-duration coast.

20 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960628075171106816)

Musk: looks like development of BFR is moving quickly, and won't be necessary to qualify Falcon Heavy for crewed spaceflight.

ЦитироватьJeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust) 20 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960628677817044992)

Musk: if we're successful, offer near super-heavy-lift for little more than Falcon 9. "Game over" for all other heavy-lift rockets

18 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960629121909915653)

Musk: if successful with this test launch, we'll be ready to put a satellite on the next Falcon Heavy launch.

16 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960629706826698752)

Musk: if successful should be able to d another FH in three to six months. Can produce them at a pretty rapid rate.

12 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960630695788990465)

Musk: we kind of tabled Crew Dragon on Falcon Heavy (including the cislunar mission announced last Feb.) and focus our energies on BFR.

15 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960629934388588544)

Musk: if we wanted to, we could add to more side boosters, make it Falcon Super Heavy.

ЦитироватьJeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust) 15 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960630695788990465)

Musk: we kind of tabled Crew Dragon on Falcon Heavy (including the cislunar mission announced last Feb.) and focus our energies on BFR.

12 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960631417792319488)

Musk: it would be a "real huge downer" if Falcon Heavy blows up, but hope to learn a lot. It's a win if it just clears the pad.

10 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960631901865283584)

Musk: main reason for the six-hour coast is to demonstrate direct GEO insertion (for national security customers).

10 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960632250500042752)

Musk: will be three cameras mounted on the Roadster, should provide "epic views" if all goes well.

8 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960632647499374594)

Musk: it should be an exciting day tomorrow. We'll have a good time whatever happens.

ЦитироватьJonathan McDowell‏Подлинная учетная запись @planet4589 (https://twitter.com/planet4589) 35 сек. назад (https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/960635478159560704)

Correction: probably SECO-1 is 180 x 200 km or so, SECO-2 is 200 x 35800 km to demo GTO, SECO-3 is 35800 x Escape . Hopefully we'll know more after the event.

Цитироватьigel пишет:
Ну что ждем. Вообще неплохие шансы на успех с первого раза - все что можно проверить на замле, проверили неплохо.

Цитироватьigel пишет: Где может сидеть засада, что нельзя протестировать полностью до полета, зоны риска:
. . .
 - софт - тоже много нового (и старого работающего в новых условиях).

ЦитироватьNot пишет:
Стояли за спиной?

ЦитироватьPhotos: Falcon Heavy in position for first test launch
February 5, 2018 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/) Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket stood atop historic launch pad 39A on Monday, one day before 27 kerosene-fueled rocket engines will dispatch the towering rocket into space with nearly 5 million pounds of thrust.

Спойлер

Liftoff Tuesday is planned during a two-and-a-half hour launch window opening at 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT). The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon Heavy will take off from pad 39A, a seaside launch facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, previously a departure point for Saturn 5 moon rockets and space shuttles.

Tuesday's demonstration flight will attempt to heave an electric sports car belonging of SpaceX founder Elon Musk on a trajectory to escape Earth's gravitational grasp. The maneuvers required to send Musk's cherry red Tesla Roadster into a heliocentric orbit around the sun will help engineers verify the Falcon Heavy's key performance parameters, officials said.

The Falcon Heavy is made of three first stage cores derived from SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, combining to cluster 27 Merlin 1D engines together.

Follow our Mission Status Center (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/05/falcon-heavy-demo-flight-mission-status-center/) for live coverage of the countdown and launch.


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

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ЦитироватьСтарый пишет:
Если взорвут исторический стартовый комплекс то будет жалко.  :(

Цитироватьtass.ru (http://tass.ru/kosmos/4932626) Илон Маск оценил шансы на успех первого запуска сверхтяжелой ракеты Falcon Heavy в 50%
 
НЬЮ-ЙОРК, 6 февраля. /Корр. ТАСС Иван Пильщиков/. Глава американской компании SpaceX Илон Маск полагает, что шансы на полный успех первого запуска новой сверхтяжелой ракеты Falcon Heavy, запланированного на вторник, составляют около 50%. Об этом предприниматель заявил в опубликованном в понедельник интервью американскому сетевому изданию Ars Technica (https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/02/at-the-pad-elon-musk-sizes-up-the-falcon-heavys-chance-of-success/), специализирующемуся на новостях техники.

Цитировать"Много что может пойти не так", - констатировал Маск. "Я бы хотел подчеркнуть, что шансы на успех не являются чрезвычайно высокими", - пояснил он. Предприниматель отметил, что "настроен очень оптимистично", хотя и признал, что "оптимизм на самом деле не является обоснованным". "Мне кажется, что шансы на наш успех составляют два из трех, но на самом деле у нас 50 на 50", - указал он.

Как рассказал Маск, особые опасения у него вызывает возможность того, что ускорители ракеты могут оказать нежелательное воздействие друг на друга. Предприниматель не исключил, что это может привести к поломке.
Старт Falcon Heavy с мыса Канаверал намечен на 13:30 по времени восточного побережья США (21:30 мск). Два боковых сегмента ракеты-носителя должны совершить посадку на мысе Канаверал для повторного использования, а первая ступень центрального сегмента должна опуститься на платформу в Атлантическом океане.

Цитироватьtnt22 пишет:

Цитировать15 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960629934388588544)

Musk: if we wanted to, we could add to more side boosters, make it Falcon Super Heavy.

ЦитироватьЗловредный пишет:
Не надо. Получится Ангара.

ЦитироватьЗловредный пишет:

Цитироватьtnt22 пишет:

Цитировать15 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960629934388588544)

Musk: if we wanted to, we could add to more side boosters, make it Falcon Super Heavy.

Не надо. Получится Ангара.

ЦитироватьKBOB пишет:
Интересно он бустеры будет добавлять как в пан-флейте или как на Delta-III?

ЦитироватьСегодня вечером пометка «вы находитесь здесь» в известном «списке SpaceX-скептика» может сдвинуться еще на одну позицию вниз: на сегодня запланирован первый запуск Falcon Heavy, сверхтяжелой ракеты компании SpaceX.
 



...

Если все пойдет согласно расчетам, Falcon Heavy взлетит в 21:30 по московскому времени (трансляцию можно удет смотреть, например, на сайте (http://www.spacex.com/webcast) SpaceX), а «Попмеханика» будет вести трансляцию на сайте и в соцсетях. Все три первых ступени будут возвращены: две боковые сядут на посадочны площадки во Флориде. а центральный блок — на морскую платформу. Существует также вероятность, что SpaceX попытается посадить вторую ступень, но не для повторного использования, а для сбора данных и отработки технологии.
Как и в других тестовых запусках, полезная нагрузка в запуске Falcon Heavy будет играть декоративную роль: на орбите окажется автомобиль Tesla Roadster вишневого цвета, в салоне которого будет играть песня Space Oddity Дэвида Боуи. Как это будет выглядеть, рассказывает ролик, который сделали в SpaceX заранее: он показывает полет Falcon Heavy под другую песню Боуи — Life on Mars.
   

ЦитироватьPreview: SpaceX Set to Debut Falcon Heavy Rocket via Long-Awaited Shakedown Flight
February 6, 2018 (http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-launch-preview/)

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FHonpad.jpeg)
Photo: SpaceX

A decade-long journey to the launch pad could end on Tuesday for SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket with the long-awaited maiden launch of the tri-core rocket. With a commercial launch license fr om the FAA in hand, a clean Launch Readiness Review and fair weather forecast, SpaceX wheeled the monster rocket up the ramp to Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center Sunday night and placed it in its vertical launch position for liftoff on Tuesday during a two-and-a-half-hour window opening at 18:30 UTC, 1:30 p.m. local time.

Спойлер

>> Live Launch Coverage (http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/live-falcon-heavy-launch-coverage/)

Falcon Heavy completed a critical test firing of its 27 Merlin engines on January 24th, delivering critical data on the performance of the powerplants and the structural interplay between the three Falcon 9 cores operating in unison to push Falcon Heavy toward space. A final regulatory hurdle was cleared on February 2nd when the Federal Aviation Administration issued a commercial launch license to SpaceX for "transporting the modified Tesla Roadster (mass simulator) to a hyperbolic orbit."

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FalconHeavyStaticFire.jpg)
Falcon Heavy Static Fire Test – Photo: SpaceX

SpaceX went through a rigorous review process after the January 24 test firing to ensure the real-world data obtained fr om a plethora of sensors on the vehicle compared favorably to simulations and models developed by the company. The final Launch Readiness Review was held on Sunday and confirmed all was ready for the long-awaited mission – allowing Falcon Heavy to return to the storied Kennedy Space Center launch pad that hosted all Apollo missions to the lunar surface and the majority of Space Shuttle flights.

Like the early flights of the Saturn V in the 1960s, Falcon Heavy's debut will be dicey business. "There's a lot of risk associated with Falcon Heavy, a real good chance that that vehicle does not make it to orbit," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said at a conference in 2017. "I want to make sure to set expectations accordingly. I hope it makes it far enough beyond the pad so that it does not cause pad damage. I would consider even that a win, to be honest."

In remarks to the press on Monday, Musk reaffirmed his 50-50 estimation of chances for a successful flight and Falcon Heavy not making it into orbit.

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FH-Tesla.jpg)
Falcon Heavy's Inaugural Payload – Photo: SpaceX

If all goes according to plan, Tuesday's launch should make for some spectacular viewing and thousands are expected to descend on Florida's Space Coast to witness Falcon Heavy take flight and experience the ground-shaking thrust as it rockets into the sky.

SpaceX plans to recover all three boosters on the Falcon Heavy rocket – the two side-mounted cores, both previously flown as individual Falcon 9 rockets, will make a rocket-powered U-turn to fly back to Cape Canaveral and land around 15 seconds apart on two concrete pads within SpaceX's Landing Zone while the reinforced central core continues pushing the rocket and heads for a landing on the OCISLY Drone Ship positioned downrange fr om the launch pad.

Falcon Heavy, when leaving the launch pad with a thrust of over 2,100 metric ton-force, will be the most powerful rocket of the current millennium, capable of sending nearly 64 metric tons into a Low Earth Orbit or dispatching over 16 metric tons toward Mars. "Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit," SpaceX said in a carefully worded statement to exclude Russia's Buran/Polyus mission that lifted 80,000kg in 1987 but failed to make a stable orbit.

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/sites/206/2018/01/DRezf3DUEAAubA3.jpg)
Photo: SpaceX

SpaceX offers a Falcon Heavy launch for a starting price of $90 million, coming at twice the performance and around a third of the cost of its main competitor, the Delta IV Heavy which can haul up to 29 metric tons into orbit owed in part to its use of the more energetic Liquid Oxygen / Liquid Hydrogen propellant combination. NASA's upcoming monster rocket, the Space Launch System, will be capable of boosting up to 70 metric tons into orbit in its initial version launching in late 2019 or 2020.

Falcon Heavy weighs in at 1,420 metric tons, stands 70 meters tall, has a span of 12.2 meters from side to side and comprises three 3.66-meter cores strapped together and a standard Falcon 9 second stage sitting atop, responsible for the final boost into orbit. All three cores are fully equipped for re-use, featuring grid fins for steering while flying through the atmosphere and four fold-out landing legs.

The inaugural Falcon Heavy launch vehicle features two previously-flown Falcon 9 stages as side boosters – having helped push a Dragon and Thaicom communications satellite into orbit – while the core stage is brand new and incorporates a number of reinforcements on its airframe to deal with the loads transferred from the side boosters.

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/sites/206/2018/01/DRezf3EVAAAqm2s.jpg)
Photo: SpaceX

Much effort was put into modeling Falcon Heavy's flight environments, but as Elon Musk stated, there is a long list of items that are "impossible to test on the ground." Particular focus was on vehicle dynamics as the rocket has to deal with a tripling of the acoustic and vibration environment of Falcon 9, the loads experienced in flight will be vastly different from Falcon 9 in critical areas such as MaxQ and the trans-sonic flight regime, and the separation of the two side boosters was a completely new area for SpaceX.

"This is one of those things that's really difficult to test on the ground," Musk said last year. "We can fire the engines on the ground and we can try to simulate the dynamics of having 27 instead of nine booster engines, and the airflow as it goes through transonic. It's going to see heavy transonic buffet. How does it behave at Max-Q?" These and other open questions can only be answered by a test flight.

The sheer thrust generated by Falcon Heavy's 27 Merlin 1D main engines puts the vehicle on the very top of the list of vehicle's currently in operation, generating a launch thrust near 21 Meganewtons – surpassing Europe's Ariane 5 that develops a liftoff thrust of 15 Meganewtons, Delta IV Heavy & its three RS-68A engines that create a launch thrust of 9.4 MN, and China's new Long March 5 rocket with a peak thrust of 10.6 MN. On the all-time list, Falcon Heavy will rank fourth, only surpassed by the Soviet N1 moon rocket that never flew successfully, the Apollo-era Saturn V, Russia's Energia and the Space Shuttle with its Solid Rocket Booster assistance.

>> Falcon Heavy Launch Vehicle Overview (http://spaceflight101.com/spacerockets/falcon-heavy/)

Given the nature of the test flight and the energy possessed by the Falcon Heavy at liftoff, SpaceX was required to obtain additional insurance. According to the commercial launch license issued by the FAA, SpaceX must hold $110 million in third party liability insurance or otherwise demonstrate financial responsibility to cover property damages from a potential mishap. Additionally, the company holds $100 million in government property insurance and a $72 million policy to cover claims incurred during pre-flight operations at the Kennedy Space Center.

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/sites/206/2018/01/FHStatic-Fire.jpg)
Photo: SpaceX

Internal documentation sent out to the NASA workforce at the center informed teams that personnel is to shelter in place in case of an anomaly and avoid being next to glass windows and doors. The Launch Hazard Area enforced by the U.S. Air Force has been set up to keep the public safe in the event of an accident in the early flight phase and navigational warnings issued for the rocket's flight corridor define a much larger hazard area than for a run-of-the-mill F9 mission with restricted areas stretching over 900 Kilometers into the Atlantic Ocean.

Instead of a boilerplate mass simulator, Falcon Heavy will carry a more colorful payload on Tuesday: Elon Musk's used Tesla Roadster. If all goes well, the 1,300-Kilogram automobile will be injected into a hyperbolic escape trajectory, taking it into an elliptical orbit around the sun venturing out as far as the orbit of Mars but not actually coming close to Earth's neighboring planet to comply with planetary protection guidelines.

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FH-Tesla1.jpg)
Photo: SpaceX / Elon Musk

The 2009 midnight cherry Roadster has been specially prepared for space travel and is "driven" by "Starman" – a mannequin dressed in a SpaceX space suit astronauts launching on the company's Dragon spacecraft will wear. According to Elon Musk, the Roadster will be playing David Bowie's Space Oddity while riding uphill and its glove compartment contains a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy along with a towel and a sign saying 'Don't Panic.'

Launching esoteric payloads on their test flight missions is nothing new for SpaceX. The debut mission of the company's Dragon spacecraft in 2010 flew a wheel of cheese to orbit and back in homage to a Monty Python comedy sketch. Lifting the Tesla into heliocentric orbit will not come close to exhausting Falcon Heavy's lift capability and its launch could be easily handled by a Falcon 9.

"I love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future," Musk Tweeted in December.

Getting Falcon Heavy off the ground has been a lengthy endeavor. When he first presented the rocket to the public in 2011, Elon Musk said the inaugural mission would occur as early as 2013. In hindsight, Musk characterizes his expectation and the company's initial design approach as 'naive' as development work turned out to be much more complex than "simply strapping three Falcon 9 cores together."

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/sites/206/2018/01/38583829815_e01509d1a7_o.jpg)
Photo: SpaceX

SpaceX slowed the development of Falcon Heavy to focus on improvements of the company's Falcon 9 workhorse, including groundbreaking work in the area of re-usability.

Technical problems that destroyed a pair of Falcon 9s in 2015 and 2016 put Falcon Heavy on the backburner once again as SpaceX focused all technical resources on returning Falcon 9 to flight. With Falcon 9 enjoying its busiest and most successful year to date in 2017, SpaceX could put the finishing touches on the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle and ready the ground infrastructure at Cape Canaveral to support the tri-core rocket.

However, achieving liftoff is still another challenge to be met as SpaceX was so far only able to run through one countdown-to-ignition on the Falcon Heavy and there are a number of milestones that have to be checked off to allow the vehicle to rumble off – including a complex ignition sequence to get all 27 Merlins up and running. Weather is another factor that could come into the way of launch, though odds appear in SpaceX's favor with an 80% chance of favorable conditions during the 2.5-hour window.

The main weather concerns for Tuesday are liftoff winds and a slight chance of low-level clouds arriving from the ocean. Upper level winds will be from the west at 90 knots, 40,000 feet in altitude – slightly sporty but within the allowable range for Falcon 9 missions. In case of a 24-hour launch delay, odds of acceptable weather drop to 70%.

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Countdown & Launch Sequence

Спойлер

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/sites/206/2018/01/38583829295_d658ecb02f_o.jpg)
Photo: SpaceX

As Falcon Heavy draws extensive heritage from the single-core Falcon 9 rocket, its countdown is set up in a similar fashion with the obvious changes of tanking two additional cores and completing avionics checks on two more boosters. Countdown operations kick into gear around ten hours before the opening of the day's launch window when Falcon Heavy will be powered up to enter a multi-hour checkout sequence – overseen by two Launch Control Rooms at the Cape and engineering support at SpaceX HQ in Hawthorne, California.

Checkouts completed over the early countdown phase are focused on the avionics on the rocket's three boosters and the second stage, communication checks will be performed for all the stages and the team will check out the rocket's Autonomous Flight Safety System that would come into play should the triple-core vehicle veer off course or encounter any serious problems on the way up. While Falcon Heavy is undergoing checkouts, teams at the launch pad will make the final physical reconfigurations to put all ground systems into the proper configuration for flight.

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/39225582351_4786bdb4bc_k.jpg)
Photo: SpaceX

The launch pad will be cleared by L-2 hours and Falcon Heavy will move through a second round of RF link checks and AFTS verifications as well as Hold Fire Checks with the Eastern Range's Morrell Operations Center. A possible hold point at L-105 minutes could be used to defer T-0 later into the window in case additional work is needed to prepare for tanking.

Propellant loading, although involving nearly three times the propellant mass of Falcon 9, only stretches the timeline in place for F9 by 15 minutes due to the use of densified Liquid Oxygen and Rocket Propellant 1 that can only remain in the rocket's tanks for so long before warming excessively and resulting a decline of launch vehicle performance. The SpaceX team will move through polling at around T-88 minutes and the automated countdown sequencer assumes control of the complex tanking operation at T-85 minutes.

Propellant loading starts with loading some 400 metric tons of Rocket Propellant 1, chilled to -7°C, into the three boosters via interfaces in the launch mount at the base of the rocket and into the second stage through the Strongback structure. Densified Liquid Oxygen, chilled to -207°C, will begin flowing into the three cores at T-45 minutes followed by the second stage at T-20 minutes to feed around 940 metric tons to the vehicle. As with Falcon 9, propellant loading is a carefully controlled sequence with lots of throttling in the flow rates – especially for LOX which is expected to close out on the boosters at T-3 and the second stage at T-2 minutes to ensure the vehicle achieves the maximum possible flight mass.

The pace of countdown events will kick into high gear at the T-9-minute mark when the ground- and vehicle-based TEA-TEB ignition system will be primed to inject a self-igniting mixture into the 27 engines to initiate the combustion process. Hydraulics will step up to flight pressure via ground pressurization for a final test of the engine trim valves that set the propellant mixture and the second stage's thrust vector control actuators that move the MVac nozzle to control the stage's orientation.

>> Countdown Timeline (http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-countdown-timeline/)

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FH-Anim1.jpg)
Image: SpaceX

Pre-valves to the Merlin engines will open at T-7 minutes to begin the process of chilling down their turbomachinery using the supercold Liquid Oxygen to ensure a clean ignition can be achieved. Falcon Heavy will top up its RP-1 tanks at T-6 minutes and the transition to internal power will begin shortly thereafter. Tanks will enter initial pressurization to add stability to the stack while the Strongback cradles open up and the large structure retracts by 1.5 degrees and is primed for a rapid kickback at the moment of hold-down release.

The AFTS will switch to its own internal power source at T-3 minutes and go through its arming process by T-1 minute. As propellant loading closes out, Falcon Heavy will be isolated from ground systems inside T-2 minutes; gas close outs will occur half a minute later as Helium loading on the boosters and upper stage ends.

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FH-Anim2.jpg)
Image: SpaceX

Falcon Heavy will take control from ground computers at T-1 minute and enter final tank pressurization in preparation for takeoff. A final GO will be voiced from the Launch Director at T-45 seconds and the hands-off point for a human-commanded abort comes at T-10 seconds. Ignition will be commanded at T-5 seconds in a complex sequence that only ignites two engines at a time followed by another pair a few milliseconds later. This staggered ignition sequence is designed to avoid thrust-torques which – in a worst-case scenario – could rip the vehicle apart on the launch pad.

Falcon Heavy's computers will monitor the start-up and health of all 27 engines and permit the vehicle to lift off once all are verified to be at their 92% thrust setting chosen for this mission – giving the vehicle a launch thrust of 2,140 metric-ton-force. Rising from the historic LC-39A launch pad upon release of eight hold-down clamps, Falcon Heavy will climb vertically for just 15 seconds before entering its pitch and roll maneuvers that will align the vehicle with a launch azimuth almost straight to the east, aiming for a parking orbit inclination of 29 degrees.

>> Flight Profile (http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/flight-profile/)

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FH-Anim3.jpg)
Image: SpaceX

As the vehicle climbs away from Florida's Space Coast, the central core will throttle its engines down in order to save propellants – a similar procedure is used by the Delta IV Heavy that reduces thrust on its central RS-68A to 57% of rated performance a minute into the flight in order to burn for another minute and a half after the boosters separate.

Just 66 seconds into the flight, Falcon Heavy will pass Maximum Dynamic Pressure wh ere the used airframes on the two boosters and the reinforced structure of the central core will have to withstand the maximum stress as they make their way through the dense atmosphere. Given this mission's profile, peak stress should be less than for a Falcon 9 rocket heading to Geostationary Transfer Orbit, Elon Musk said.

The most critical event of the flight – aside from making it off the ground – will come two minutes and 29 seconds into the flight when the two boosters will shut down their nine engines and separate from the still-firing core four seconds after BECO. The two former Falcon 9 first stages will separate at the same time using non-pyrotechnic separation hardware and employing their cold gas attitude control systems to create a safe separation from the core.

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FH-Anim4.jpg)
Image: SpaceX

Separation of the two side cores will mark the beginning of near-simultaneous space acrobatics as the two will begin their return sequence to Cape Canaveral's Landing Zones 1 and 2 wh ere they are expected to land just 150 meters apart on two concrete landing pads. After separation, the thrust struts connecting the boosters to the core stage will retract into protective compartments on all three cores to keep them out of the harsh re-entry environment and so allow for post-flight inspections and re-use of the hardware.

Relying on their Nitrogen thrusters, the two side cores will maneuver into an engines-first orientation immediately after separation since every second takes them further away from the coast. It is understood that their return sequence will be staggered by a few seconds with one booster holding off on the boostback burn to create a safe separation distance between the two as they make their way toward landing.

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FH-Anim5.jpg)
Iimage: SpaceX

Firing up three Merlin 1D engines around T+2 minutes and 50 seconds, the two boosters will reverse course to head back toward Cape Canaveral. The boostback burn is followed by three minutes of passive flight outside the atmosphere during which the boosters will deploy their four actuated grid fins and maneuver into the proper orientation for atmospheric entry. A brief Entry Burn of around 17 seconds starting at T+6:41 will allow each booster to hit the brakes prior to re-entry to lessen the aerodynamic and heat loads experienced when encountering the dense atmosphere at a speed upwards of Mach 3.

Flying through the atmosphere without engine power for nearly a minute, the 48-meter tall boosters will be slowed to subsonic speed and use their grid fins to adjust their angle of attack and steer toward Landing Zones 1 and 2 at the former Space Launch Complex 13 some 15 Kilometers south of LC-39A.

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FH-Anim6.jpg)
Image: SpaceX

Half a minute before the anticipated touchdown, each booster will fire up its center engine to begin the process of arresting its vertical speed to come to a gentle touchdown on four fold-out landing legs that deploy in the final seconds of their return to Terra Firma, expected at T+7 minutes and 58 seconds. Residents and spectators have been informed by SpaceX that the planned return of the boosters will result in a pair of sonic booms.

While the boosters go through the motions to head back to Earth, what is left hurdling toward orbit is essentially a partially-fueled Falcon 9 rocket. The central core will throttle its engines up after separation of the outer cores and fire for another 31 seconds to accelerate the vehicle. MECO is planned at T+3 minutes and 4 seconds, to be followed three seconds later by stage separation via four pneumatic pushers to send the two stages on their separate ways – the second stage immediately heads into start-up to proceed into a Parking Orbit while the Core Stage, Booster 1033, begins its high-energy return.

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FH-Anim8.jpg)
Image: SpaceX

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FH-Anim9.jpg)
Image: SpaceX

Because of the additional energy provided by the outer cores, the central booster is looking at a much higher energy than Falcon 9 first stages performing Geostationary Transfer Orbit missions. Using its cold gas thrusters, the core will maneuver into position for a partial boostback maneuver taking advantage of this mission's performance margins to lim it the booster's downrange travel distance and place the landing location closer to shore.

B1033 will re-light at T+6 minutes and 47 seconds on the three-engine Entry Burn to slow itself down and create a survivable re-entry toward SpaceX's 'Of Course I Still Love You' Drone Ship that will be holding position around 345 Kilometers from Cape Canaveral to catch its first Falcon Heavy core with touchdown anticipated at T+8 minutes and 19 seconds.

The second stage will split open and drop its payload fairing three minutes and 49 seconds into the flight to shed no-longer-needed weight on its way into orbit, revealing the Roadster for the rest of its journey to depart the clutches of Earth's gravity. Shutdown of the 95,000-Kilogram-force MVac engine is expected eight minutes and 31 seconds after launch, marking the start of a coast phase in a Low Earth Parking Orbit of around 200 Kilometers.

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FH-Anim10.jpg)
Image: SpaceX

In addition to demonstrating three-core flight environments, Tuesday's Falcon Heavy mission also sets out to qualify the Falcon 9 second stage for direct Geostationary missions – an important step for SpaceX to be able to compete for all U.S. Air Force Missions including those requiring a direct injection. This type of mission profile would require the second stage to complete extended coast phases of 6+ hours, a feat not yet demonstrated by SpaceX and the Falcon Heavy mission was seen as a good opportunity.

The second burn is expected to start at T+28 minutes and 22 seconds and last around 30 seconds to accelerate the vehicle into an elliptical Transfer Orbit with a period of around six hours to enable the long-duration coast test on the second stage while also setting up the proper location for the Earth Departure Maneuver. SpaceX did not disclose the exact timing of the mission's third burn and no target orbit parameters were provided

(http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-demo/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FHPatch.jpg)
Credit: SpaceX

Firing up the MVac engine, the second stage will be tasked with accelerating the Tesla to a speed of 11 Kilometers per second, placing it into an elliptical orbit around the sun varying between the distance of Earth and the orbit of Mars, but not interfering with the planet for several hundred million years.

The primary objective of Tuesday's mission is validating Falcon Heavy's overall performance and collecting real-world data to feed into models to refine the vehicle's design before it can reach an operational stage. Data collected on Tuesday will be analyzed carefully by SpaceX in the weeks to come to identify any departures from existing simulations and highlight any potential weak points that have to be addressed prior to operational missions.

SpaceX currently has two more Falcon Heavy missions on the 2018 manifest – the U.S. Air Force Space Test Program 2 mission that will give the vehicle full EELV certification and the commercial launch of Arabsat 6A for Saudi Arabia.

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ЦитироватьFirst Falcon Heavy launch blends SpaceX style, raw power and the unknown
February 5, 2018 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/) Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)


SpaceX's first Falcon Heavy rocket at pad 39A. Credit: SpaceX

The electric sports car shrouded inside the nose of the first Falcon Heavy rocket may conjure notions of a flight of fancy, but SpaceX founder Elon Musk says the powerful new launcher awaiting blastoff Tuesday fr om Florida's Space Coast has a lot to prove.

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The towering Falcon Heavy, measuring 229 feet (70 meters) tall and 40 feet (12 meters) abreast, sat atop launch pad 39A Monday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the eve of its oft-delayed, high-stakes maiden flight.

The Falcon Heavy cuts an imposing figure on the Cape Canaveral landscape, where it awaits liftoff fr om the same launch pad used by the Apollo 11 moon landing flight and numerous space shuttle missions.

It's not the biggest rocket in the world — rival United Launch Alliance's Delta 4-Heavy is taller and wider — but the Falcon Heavy's 27 main engines pack a heavier punch.

Launch is scheduled during a two-and-a-half hour window Tuesday opening at 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT).

For the Falcon Heavy's first payload, Musk picked one of his used Tesla Roadsters to shoot into space, not the more typical dummy satellite often carried on test flights.

"It's just for fun," Musk said Monday in an interview with CBS News. "A lot of people didn't understand, what's the purpose of sending a car to Mars? There's no point, obviously, it's just for fun and to get the public excited.

"Normally, when a new rocket is tested they put something really boring on like a block of concrete or a chunk of steel or something," Musk told CBS News. "All that's pretty boring. What's the most fun thing we could put on because this is just a test flight? We're not going to put any valuable satellites on board. So, the car is just the most fun thing we could think of."

Musk released an animation of the Falcon Heavy launch Monday, showing the cherry red electric sports car coasting into the cosmos after its shot into interplanetary space. A spacesuit-clad figure is in the driver's seat, one arm hanging out the window and the other on the Roadster's steering wheel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk338VXcb24 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk338VXcb24)
(video 3:26)

The billionaire shared photos of the figure, which he dubbed "Starman" in apparent reference to the famous David Bowie tune, on Instagram before the automobile's encapsulation inside the Falcon Heavy's payload fairing.

Musk announced the Falcon Heavy's cargo in December, capitalizing on an opportunity for cross-brand marketing between SpaceX and Tesla, his two primary companies.

"I love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future," Musk tweeted in December.

Musk said the midnight cherry red Tesla Roadster, which sells for $200,000 brand new, will be playing David Bowie's iconic hit "Space Oddity" as it soars into the cosmos.

The Falcon Heavy will dispatch the Roadster — weighing around 2,760 pounds (1,250 kilograms) on the street — with enough velocity to escape Earth's gravitational bonds, reaching a maximum speed of around 7 miles per second (11 kilometers per second; 24,600 mph).

The sports car will go into a "precessing Earth-Mars elliptical orbit around the sun," SpaceX officials wrote in the mission's press kit. The orbit will stretch beyond Mars' average distance fr om the sun.

"We expect it'll get about 400 million kilometers away from Earth, maybe 250 to 270 million miles, and be doing 11 kilometers per second," Musk told reporters Monday. "It's going to be in a precessing elliptical orbit, with one part of the ellipse being at Earth orbit the other part being at Mars orbit, so it'll essentially be an Earth-Mars cycler.

"We estimate it'll be in that orbit for several hundred million years, maybe in excess of a billion years. At times, it will come extremely close to Mars, and there's a tiny, tiny chance that it will hit Mars," he said.

Asked if SpaceX has quantified the chance of the Roadster impacting Mars, Musk replied: "Extremely tiny. I wouldn't hold your breath."


Credit: SpaceX

The Tesla Roadster's weight and dimensions fall well under the Falcon Heavy's capacity, and would not stress the lift capability of SpaceX's smaller, single-core Falcon 9 rocket or Atlas, Delta and Ariane boosters operated by rivals United Launch Alliance and Arianespace.

The iconography surrounding Tuesday's test launch has captured attention, but star of the show will be the Falcon Heavy itself, set to become the world's most powerful launcher currently in service.

Comprised of three rocket booster cores derived from SpaceX's operational Falcon 9 rocket, plus a single-engine upper stage, the Falcon Heavy can generate 5.1 million pounds of thrust in future configurations. On Tuesday's demo flight, the average thrust from the Falcon Heavy's 27 kerosene-fueled Merlin 1D engines will be throttled back to 92 percent power, equivalent to roughly 4.7 million pounds, Musk said.

That will surpass the European Ariane 5 launcher, the world's leader in liftoff power at 2.9 million pound of thrust from two segmented solid rocket boosters and a core engine. SpaceX's new rocket will produce more thrust than any launch vehicle since the space shuttle, and its power at liftoff — approximately the same thrust as 18 Boeing 747 jumbo jets — will come in fourth among rockets all time, after the Soviet Union's N1 moon rocket, which never had a fully successful flight, NASA's Saturn 5 launcher that carried astronauts to the moon, Russia's 1980s-era Energia rocket and the space shuttle.

The Falcon Heavy will also be able to carry more payload into orbit than any other rocket in the world — and the most by any launcher since the Saturn 5 — a more important measure of the rocket's lifting capacity.

The Delta 4-Heavy rocket, the most capable rocket in service today in terms of lift capacity, can haul up to 62,540 pounds (28,370 kilograms) to a low-altitude orbit approximately 120 miles (200 kilometers) above Earth when launched to the east from Cape Canaveral, according to a launch vehicle data sheet published by ULA.

NASA's planned Space Launch System, set for a maiden flight in late 2019 or early 2020, will carry more than 154,000 pounds (70,000 kilograms) to low Earth orbit and produce a maximum thrust of 8.8 million pounds. A souped-up model of the SLS with an enlarged upper stage launching in the early 2020s could haul more than 230,000 pounds (105 metric tons) to low Earth orbit.

The SLS is being designed with surplus space shuttle engine and booster components, and the space agency intends to use the multibillion-dollar mega-rocket to send astronaut crews to the moon, and eventually beyond.


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

When its first stage boosters are not recovered, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy will be capable of delivering up to 140,660 pounds (63,800 kilograms) to low Earth orbit when launched to the east from Florida's Space Coast, wh ere rockets get a velocity boost from Earth's rotation.

But SpaceX intends to land all three first stage boosters on the Falcon Heavy, eating into the rocket's propellant reserves and reducing the weight it can loft into orbit.

A Falcon Heavy rocket flight sells commercially for around $90 million, according to SpaceX's website. But a mission for NASA or the U.S. military, which levy additional requirements on their launch providers, is expected to go for $150 million or more.

A mission using ULA's Delta 4-Heavy rocket costs at least twice that. A Delta 4-Heavy launch contract for NASA's Parker Solar Probe awarded in 2015 was valued at $389 million.

Musk predicted the first Falcon Heavy has a 50 to 70 percent chance of full success, but the final outcome of Tuesday's test flight will only be known more than six hours after liftoff.

"There's so much that can go wrong here," Musk told CBS News. "There are a lot of experts out there saying there's no way you can do 27 engines, all at the same time, and not have something go wrong.

"You've got the booster-to-booster interaction, acoustics and vibration that haven't been seen from any man-made device in a long time," Musk said.

The Soviet-era N1 rocket had 30 engines, but Russian engineers had trouble getting all of the powerplants to work in unison. Engine vibrations, turbopump failures and fuel leaks led to four failed launch attempts.

By comparison, the Saturn 5 had five larger first stage engines.

Built at SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California, the Falcon Heavy will encounter intense structural loads as it climbs to the east from the Kennedy Space Center and exceeds the speed of sound. The moment of maximum aerodynamic pressure, known as Max-Q, will be a major stress point.

The Falcon Heavy's core stage was manufactured specifically for the test flight. Engineers stiffened the center core to take the loads of a Falcon Heavy launch.

The two side boosters were refurbished and modified after launching two earlier Falcon 9 flights, sending the Thaicom 8 communications satellite and a space station-bound cargo capsule toward orbit in May and July of 2016.

"Around Max-Q, that's wh ere the force on the rocket is the greatest, and that's possibly wh ere it could fail as well," Musk said. "We're a bit worried about ice potentially falling off the upper stage onto the nose cones of the side boosters. That could be coming like a cannon ball through the nose cones."


Artist's illustration of the Falcon Heavy's two side-mounted boosters separating from the rocket's core stage a few minutes after liftoff. Credit: SpaceX

The Falcon Heavy's twin boosters will cut off their engines and fall away from the rocket around two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, a separation sequence that has also never been tested in flight. The core stage, operating a lower throttle setting to conserve propellant and burn longer, will continue firing its nine engines until T+plus 3 minutes, 4 seconds.

"If it clears the pad and hopefully makes it throgh transonic and Max-Q, and the boosters are able to separate, it's a more normal regime," Musk said. "It becomes like a Falcon 9 at that point."

The upper stage's single Merlin engine will fire three times on Tuesday's mission, continuing the demo flight's experiments well after liftoff.

Meanwhile, the Falcon Heavy's two strap-on boosters will flip around to fly tail-first with the aid of cold-gas nitrogen thrusters. Some of the engines on each booster will reignite for "boostback" and "entry" maneuvers to aim for two adjacent touchdown zones at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station around 9 miles (13 kilometers) south of pad 39A.

Like the Falcon 9's first stage, the boosters will unfurl grid fins for added stability.

Twin sonic booms will crack across the spaceport as the boosters return to Cape Canaveral for staggered landings, slowed with the help of rocket thrust.

The rocket's center core will head for touchdown on SpaceX's drone ship positioned downrange in the Atlantic Ocean, with landing expected at T+plus 8 minutes, 19 seconds, approximately 20 seconds after the boosters arrive back on the ground at Cape Canaveral.

The second stage engine will shut down to conclude its first burn at around T+plus 8 minutes, 31 seconds. Another 30-second firing is programmed to start at T+plus 28 minutes, 22 seconds, to send the upper stage, its Tesla cargo and "Starman" into an orbit that ranges to a peak altitude tens of thousands of miles above Earth.


A side-by-side comparison of the Falcon Heavy with other current launchers. The illustration is shown approximately to scale. Credit: SpaceX

But the mission will not be over.

The rocket will keep flying, soaring through the Van Allen radiation belts before its engine reignites around six hours later for a departure maneuver into interplanetary space.

Musk said the extreme cold and radiation will present hazards during the six-hour coast, which is twice as long as any profile followed by a Falcon 9 rocket in the past.

"Even once we reach orbit we've got a very long coast, we've got a six-hour coast before restart, which is twice as long as we've ever coasted a stage, so we could see the fuel potentially freeze, because it's out there in deep space, and when it's not facing the sun it's at three degrees above absolute zero," Musk told CBS News. "So it could easily freeze, or the liquid oxygen could boil off, so there's a lot that could go wrong."

The upper stage "will actually be in a far worse radiation environment than deep space for several hours, survive that, and then re-light for the trans-Mars injection," he said.

Long-duration upper stage flight profiles are required for the most demanding U.S. military launch missions, such as the placement of satellites directly into geostationary orbit, a circular perch more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator. Multiple, perfectly-timed engine burns are needed to move from an initial low-altitude inclined parking orbit into such a high-altitude equatorial position.

The lengthy upper stage flight Tuesday will try to demonstrate the Falcon rocket family's capability to pull off such a feat, showcasing the performance to the Air Force and other prospective customers.

Musk said the upper stage carries additional battery power and pressurant gas for the extra operating time in space.

Musk unveiled the Falcon Heavy rocket in 2011, and proclaimed then the launcher would be ready for blastoff in 2013. SpaceX said it slowed development of the Falcon Heavy to focus on other projects, including the recovery of Falcon 9 rocket stages for reuse, and to resolve technical problems that destroyed two Falcon 9 rockets in 2015 and 2016, one in flight and another on the launch pad.

Musk announced in September his updated vision for settling Mars — SpaceX's ultimate mission — and announced that his company is working on a giant new rocket dubbed the BFR that could send cargo and crew ships to the red planet, or perhaps the moon if a lunar base becomes reality.

SpaceX developed the Falcon Heavy to lift heavier payloads into space than the company's Falcon 9 rocket, and to compete with other heavy-lifters for contracts to haul massive spacecraft for the U.S. military and NASA. The Falcon Heavy may also find a niche in deploying large commercial satellites, or launching clusters of smaller spacecraft to support the build-out of planned broadband communications networks.

"This rocket's great for a lot of reasons," Musk told CBS News. "It's something that I think inspires the public. I've been asked, is this like Apollo? I'd say it's not Apollo, but it's arguably a prelude to a new Apollo, and it's going to be the only heavy to super-heavy lift rocket in the world. This will be more than twice the thrust and capability of any other rocket currently flying. And if it reaches orbit, it will have the most payload of any rocket since the Saturn 5.

"You could actually send people back to the moon with the Falcon Heavy. You could, with orbital refueling, send people to Mars," he said. "We think probably our next design, the BFR, is going to be ideal for interplanetary colonization and for establishing a large base on the moon and a city on Mars," he said. "But this is a prelude to that. This is going to teach us a lot about what's necessary to have a huge booster with a crazy number of engines.

"We finally have a major advancement in rocketry ... I'm not sure whether this will be lost on people, whether they'll appreciate it," he said. "I hope they do, because the era of the very large rocket went away with Saturn 5 and with the space shuttle. I find it odd that the Falcon Heavy is twice the thrust of anything from Russia, China, Boeing, Lockheed or Europe. And I hope it encourages them to raise their sights."

Going into Tuesday's test flight, only three Falcon Heavy missions are confirmed in SpaceX's backlog after the test launch: Two for commercial telecom companies Arabsat and ViaSat, and one for the Air Force. Another company, Inmarsat, has an option to launch a future satellite on a Falcon Heavy.

Some customers that reserved launches on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket switched their satellites to the smaller Falcon 9, which benefited from multiple thrust and performance upgrades to carry some payloads that originally required the triple-core rocket.

Inmarsat and Intelsat had planned launches on the Falcon Heavy, but both ended up flying their satellites on the Falcon 9. The ViaSat 2 satellite built to provide high-speed Internet access across the United States was supposed to launch on a Falcon Heavy, but the firm move its launch to a European Ariane 5 rocket, citing schedule worries. ViaSat retained its contract with SpaceX to launch a future satellite on a Falcon Heavy.

Musk told CBS News he was "giddy" on the eve of the Falcon Heavy's first blastoff.

"I thought for sure something would delay us, we could have some issue we discovered on the rocket or maybe bad weather," Musk said in a conference call with reporters Monday afternoon. "But the weather's looking good, the rocket's looking good, so it should be an exciting day. I'm looking forward to it.

"We'll have a good time no matter what happens. It's guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another. It's either going to be an exciting success or an exciting failure. One big boom! I'd say tune in, it's going to be worth your time."

But he's hopeful for success.

"We've done everything we can," Musk said. "I'm sure we've done everything we could do to maximize the chances of success of this mission. I think once you've done everything you can think of and it still goes wrong, well, there's nothing you could have done. But I feel at peace with that."

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ЦитироватьOlegIn пишет:
Почему зачеркнуто про Луну? У Спейсов есть же планы облета Луны с туристами на борту.

Цитироватьtestest пишет:
OlegIn пишет:
Почему зачеркнуто про Луну? У Спейсов есть же планы облета Луны с туристами на борту.
Вчера Маск от него отказался.

Цитировать02/06/2018 18:15 Stephen Clark

Good morning fr om NASA's Kennedy Space Center, where the countdown clock is ticking toward the opening of today's Falcon Heavy launch window at 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT).



This view comes from the KSC Press Site around three miles from launch pad 39A, wh ere reporters and photographers are gathering to cover today's Falcon Heavy test flight.

The Falcon Heavy countdown is a bit different than a standard Falcon 9 countdown, but the major pre-launch steps are much the same.

Filling of the Falcon Heavy with super-chilled, densified RP-1 and liquid oxygen propellants will begin somewhat earlier in the countdown than for a standard Falcon 9 rocket.

RP-1 kerosene fuel will begin loading into the Falcon Heavy rocket first, beginning at 12:05 p.m. EST (1705 GMT), followed by liquid oxygen at 12:45 p.m. EST (1745 GMT).

ЦитироватьСуществует также вероятность, что SpaceX попытается посадить вторую ступень, но не для повторного использования, а для сбора данных и отработки технологии.

ЦитироватьЗловредный пишет:

ЦитироватьСуществует также вероятность, что SpaceX попытается посадить вторую ступень, но не для повторного использования, а для сбора данных и отработки технологии.

Ну и бред!

Цитироватьtestest пишет:

Цитироватьtestest пишет:

ЦитироватьСуществует также вероятность, что SpaceX попытается посадить вторую ступень

ЦитироватьSpaceX‏Verified account @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) 3m ago (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/960910705808609280)

All systems remain go for today's test flight of Falcon Heavy. Weather is 90% favorable for today's two-and-a-half hour launch window, which opens at 1:30 p.m. EST, or 18:30 UTC.

ЦитироватьФеликс пишет:
а что зачеркнуто и почему? он от этого отказался?

ЦитироватьЗловредный пишет:

ЦитироватьСуществует также вероятность, что SpaceX попытается посадить вторую ступень, но не для повторного использования, а для сбора данных и отработки технологии.

Ну и бред!

ЦитироватьWilliam Harwood‏ @cbs_spacenews (https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews) 12m ago (https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews/status/960913446073233409)

SpaceX/Heavy: Launch from complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center is targeted for 1:30pm EST, but sources are indicating it may slip due to upper-level winds; not yet confirmed by SpaceX, but countdown clocks are now ticking toward 2pm

Цитироватьтавот пишет:
А сколько времени планируют поддерживать связь с роадстером - была где нить инфа ?

ЦитироватьChris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF) 9m ago (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/960914156244348929)

There is a new target launch time. 14:00 EST (2p ET; 19:00 UTC). Countdown clock now at T-2hrs 27mins. #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash)

ЦитироватьElon Musk‏Verified account @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) 5m ago (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/960915618865274880)

Flight profile #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash)

ЦитироватьJeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust) 29s ago (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960918568123686912)

Now a 2:20 pm EST launch, according to the countdown clocks.

ЦитироватьSpaceX‏Verified account @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) 3m ago (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/960920426485399552)

T-0 delayed to 2:20 p.m. EST, 19:20 UTC due to upper level wind shear. Continuing to monitor winds and will update as info becomes available.

ЦитироватьElon Musk‏Verified account @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) 4m ago (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/960921700153135104)

Upper atmosphere winds currently 20% above max allowable load. Holding for an hour to allow winds to diminish. #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash)

Цитироватьtestest пишет:
Я до вчерашнего ролика думал, что Родстер отделяться от верхней ступени не будет.

ЦитироватьSpaceflight Now‏ @SpaceflightNow (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow) 1m ago (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/960924630956560384)

Launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket is now targeted for no earlier than 2:50pm EST (1950 GMT) to allow additional time to evaluate upper level winds. https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/05/falcon-heavy-demo-flight-mission-status-center/ ... (https://t.co/j9nQKPiCdX)

Цитироватьandr59 пишет:

ЦитироватьЗловредный пишет:

ЦитироватьСуществует также вероятность, что SpaceX попытается посадить вторую ступень, но не для повторного использования, а для сбора данных и отработки технологии.

Ну и бред!

Вторая ступень будет лететь с родстером 6 часов до последнего включения...

 https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/960897843975385089

ЦитироватьEric Berger‏Подлинная учетная запись @SciGuySpace (https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace) 21 ч.21 час назад (https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/960615490803634176)
Musk: 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.

ЦитироватьWilliam Harwood‏ @cbs_spacenews (https://twitter.com/cbs_spacenews)
ЧитатьЧитать 

@cbs_spacene

SpaceX/Heavy: Launch now targeted for 2:50pm EST

ЦитироватьЗловредный пишет:

Цитироватьtnt22 пишет:

Цитировать15 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960629934388588544)

Musk: if we wanted to, we could add to more side boosters, make it Falcon Super Heavy.

Не надо. Получится Ангара.

ЦитироватьFH Demo Pre-Launch Phone Presser
fh-demo-pre-launch-phone-presser.md (https://gist.github.com/theinternetftw/189852a3081eed7f695b80f374b8a727#file-fh-demo-pre-launch-phone-presser-md)

2018-02-05

Спойлер

Moderator: Good afternoon. My name is Nicole and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the SpaceX call with Elon Musk. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. Or if you would like to withdraw your question, please press the pound key. Thank you. John Taylor, Director of Communications for SpaceX, please go ahead.

John Taylor, SpaceX: Thank you Nicole. I want to first apologize to everyone who's been waiting today. We've been super-jammed and we greatly appreciate your patience. We've got about thirty minutes, maybe a little bit longer, and I'm ready for questions now. At the end, when we are ready to wrap things up, Elon will say we've got time for one more question, and -- [computer logoff noise] -- quick as we can. Are we ready for the first question?

Moderator: At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star, one on your telephone keypad. Your first question comes fr om Sean O'Kane fr om The Verge. Your line is open.

Sean O'Kane, The Verge: Hey John. I saw some information, that with the coast that's happening, after the last stage separates, that there's a chance that the Tesla might not make it out of Low Earth Orbit. I was wondering if you guys could elaborate on that?

Elon Musk: Yeah, that's true. We're going to be testing something on this flight which we've never done before, which is a six-hour coast in deep space. That's actually going to go through the Van Allen belts, so it's going to experience a great deal of radioactivity and high energy particles. So it's going to get whacked pretty hard. It's really taking the grand tour through the Van Allen belts. And it's going to do that for about six hours. And also the fuel could freeze, and the oxygen could vaporize, all of which could inhibit the third burn which is necessary for Trans-Mars Injection.

Sean O'Kane, The Verge: Once it's passed that, is there anything that you're worried about the environment of space might do to the car?

Elon Musk: No, I'm not worried about the car. It'll be fine. [chuckles]. Least of my concerns, I hope. Yeah.

Moderator: OK, the next question comes fr om...

Elon Musk: Oh, wait. If you look closely in the car video, you'll see, like a little easter egg on the dashboard. Alright. [unintelligible].

Moderator: Your next question comes fr om...

John Taylor, SpaceX: Can you speak up a little bit louder? We're having difficulty hearing you in our room.

Moderator: Your next question comes fr om Alan Boyle of GeekWire. Your line is open.

Alan Boyle, GeekWire: Hi, thanks for taking the question. What.. I'm trying to figure out the orbit. You mentioned at one point that it would be going out to the orbit of Mars. So it's going through the Van Allen belts and the onward? Maybe a little bit more about whether there would be any sort of rendezvous with the planet? Thank you.

Elon Musk: Well the Van Allen belts are very close to Earth. So it's going to be doing this, the grand tour through the Van Allen belts, and it gets zapped pretty hard, and then assuming that it makes it through all that, it will do quite a long burn for Trans-Mars Injection, and go out to Mars orbit, which is about 50% beyond that of Earth, so expect...it'll get about 400 million kilometers away fr om Earth, maybe 250 to 270 million miles. Something like that. And be doing 11 km/s. And it's going to be in a processing elliptical orbit, with one part of the ellipse being at Earth orbit, the other part being at Mars orbit. So it'll essentially be an Earth-Mars cycler. And we estimate it'll be in that orbit for several hundred million years, maybe in excess of a billion years. At times it will come extremely close to Mars, and there's a tiny, tiny chance it'll hit Mars.

Alan Boyle, GeekWire: Have you quantified that?

Elon Musk: Extremely tiny. [laughter].

Alan Boyle, GeekWire: Okay. Thank you.

Elon Musk: Don't hold your breath.

Alan Boyle, GeekWire: [laughs].

[свернуть]

Спойлер

Moderator: OK, our next question comes from the line of Marcia Dunn, from the Associated Press. Your line is open.

Marcia Dunn, Associated Press: Thank you, Elon. Putting your Roadster on board, will that make success extra sweet for you? Or failure extra bitter on the other hand? How personal is it going to be for you this time around?

Elon Musk: It's always personal. I think, actually what I find strange about this flight is that normally I feel super-stressed out the day before. This time I don't. That may be a bad sign, I'm not sure. I feel quite giddy and happy actually. So, I'm really hopeful for this flight going as planned. We've done everything we can. That's what I'm confident of: I'm sure we've done everything we could do to maximize the chance of the success of this mission. I think once you've done everything that you can think of, if it still goes wrong, there's nothing you could have done. So I feel at peace with that.

Moderator: OK, our next question comes from the line of Jeff Faust from SpaceNews. Your line is open.

Jeff Faust, SpaceNews: Hi, thanks for doing the call. Is there anything specific about this launch, any technical issues you think have the highest risk toward the successful launch?

Elon Musk: I think, it's not clear what would be the highest risk. One of the things I think about are the relative interaction of the three core boosters. Do they have some sort of resonance that we weren't anticipating? Do they sort of shake together, potentially impacting one another? Or going through the sound barrier, you get these supersonic shockwaves. You could have some shockwaves impingement, or wh ere two shockwaves interact and amplify the effect. That could cause a structural failure as it goes transonic. Then around max-Q, which is max dynamic air pressure, that's wh ere the force on the rocket is the greatest, and that's possibly wh ere it could fail as well. We're a bit worried about ice falling from the upper stage on to the nosecones of the side boosters, that would be coming like a cannonball through the nosecone. And then the separation system has not been tested in flight. We've tested everything we can think of in terms of the separation system for those side boosters on the ground, but this is the first time it has to operate in flight. I think once the second stage separates from the center booster, we're in much more known territory. And then everything from then on is relatively known, except for the very long coast through a very high radiation environment. The Van Allen belts are these sort of, the way the magnetic lines of the Earth cause charged particles to effectively, you have charged particles flowing through those magnetic lines. And you actually have a radiation environment significantly worse than deep space. Most people probably aren't aware of that. Think of the Van Allen belts as being like a concentrating lens for charged particles. So it'll actually be in a far worse radiation environment than deep space for several hours. We'll have to survive that, and then relight for the Trans-Mars Injection. Yeah. That could go wrong.

Moderator: The next question comes from the line of Dana Hull from Bloomberg News. Your line is open.

Dana Hull, Bloomberg News: Hi, thanks so much for taking the call. Could you clarify for people who maybe haven't been following the Falcon Heavy's development closely how this fits in with plans to send tourists around the moon. From your instagram post today it sounds like the moon plan is maybe now the BFR and not Falcon Heavy?

Elon Musk: Yeah. What we decided internally is to focus our future efforts on BFR. Now we'll see how the BFR development goes. If that ends up taking longer than expected, then we'll return to the idea of sending a Crew Dragon on Falcon Heavy around the Moon. And potentially doing other things with crew on Falcon Heavy. But right now it looks like BFR development is moving quickly and it will not be necessary to qualify Falcon Heavy for crewed spaceflight. We could be ready to do short hops of the spaceship portion of BFR. BFR essentially consists of a giant booster and a giant spaceship. The giant spaceship is... once you're out of Earth's deep gravity well and thick atmosphere, for the rest of the solar system, you only need the ship. The giant booster is only needed for Earth, with its unusually deep gravity well and thick atmosphere. So our focus is on the ship, and we expect to hopefully do short flights on the ship, with the ship next year. You know, aspirational.

Moderator: Your next question comes from...

Elon Musk: It's rather odd, I was looking at Falcon Heavy, and thinking...it's a bit small.

John Taylor, SpaceX: On the stand today. Yeah, it looks small. Nicole, who was the next question from?

[свернуть]

Спойлер

Moderator: Morgan Brennan, from CNBC, your line is open.

Morgan Brennan, CNBC: Hi guys, thanks for taking the time today. Elon, I wanted to talk a little bit more about the business model for Falcon Heavy. The ninety million dollar launch price, I guess especially given how much lower it is than the other heavy lift rockets that are available or in development, how are you able to drive that price as low as you are?

Elon Musk: Well, you know Falcon Heavy is essentially, from a cost standpoint, it's Falcon 9 plus two side boosters. And we expect to recover all three cores, or at least two of the three cores on every flight. Now this is a development flight, so who knows what'll happen on this flight. But being able to reuse those rocket booster cores means that the expendable portion of the Falcon Heavy flight is the same as a Falcon 9 flight. On Falcon 9 we expend the upper stage. We are in the process of recovering the fairing, we're getting better and better at recovering the fairing. So we expect to recover the fairing and the booster, the first stage of Falcon 9. Like I said, only the second stage will be expended. And what's interesting is for Falcon Heavy, it's the same amount that's expended, just the upper stage. So it means we're able to offer heavy, arguably super heavy lift, nearing super heavy lift capability for not much more than the cost of a Falcon 9. Which, if we're successful in this, it is game over for all other heavy lift rockets. It would be like trying to sell an aircraft wh ere one aircraft company had reusable aircraft and all the other aircraft companies had aircraft wh ere they were single use, and you'd sort of parachute out near your destination and the plane would crash land randomly somewh ere. Crazy as that sounds, that's how the rocket business works. So bizarre.

[свернуть]

ЦитироватьSpaceflight Now‏ @SpaceflightNow (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow) 1m ago (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/960933109305835520)
ushed back launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket to no earlier than 3:05pm EST (2005 GMT) as teams continue assessing winds aloft. https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/05/falcon-heavy-demo-flight-mission-status-center/ ... (https://t.co/j9nQKPiCdX)

ЦитироватьFH Demo Pre-Launch Phone Presser
fh-demo-pre-launch-phone-presser.md (https://gist.github.com/theinternetftw/189852a3081eed7f695b80f374b8a727#file-fh-demo-pre-launch-phone-presser-md)

2018-02-05

Спойлер

Moderator: Your next question comes from the line of Irene Klotz from Aviation Week. Your line is open.

Irene Klotz, Aviation Week: Hi, thanks very much and good luck tomorrow Elon. At what point in the demonstration flight would you be comfortable achieving, to go ahead and fly ArabSat and your other commercial payload. In other words, I know you've said in the past, tongue in cheek perhaps, that you consider success if you clear the launch tower, but realistically, to be comfortable putting commercial payloads on, at what point in this flight would you need to go?

Elon Musk: Well I think we'd want to have a successful flight before we put any expensive, or any commercial, any payload. This is a test flight. And if the test flight works, I think we'll be ready to put satellites on the next mission. There's so much that would be confirmed to work if this flight works. You can think of launch failures in two categories. There's the category of a design failure, which means that fundamentally the thing has a design flaw that prevents it from working. As soon as you've had even one successful flight, you've eliminated the possibility of a design flaw. Then thereafter you have errors of consistency. Which is, did you make the rocket the same way? Did you launch it the same way? And did you launch it under the same conditions? But eliminating errors of design is massive, and even one flight is able to do that.

Moderator: Your next question comes from the line of Tariq Malik from Space.com. Your line is open.

Tariq Malik, Space.com: Thank you. Elon, last year you had mentioned there being a major pucker factor for this flight. It sounds like you're a lot more confident right now than perhaps last summer. And I'm curious, given the performance that you see tomorrow for the launch, what your confidence level is, or your schedule plan is to digest the data, analyze it, make sure that it all went as planned, and turn around for that next flight? I mean, what is has status been of the next Heavy flight? Thanks.

Elon Musk: Yeah, I think we would be ready to do another Heavy flight pretty soon. Certainly within three to six months, maybe. What's really unique about the Heavy is the center core. I should say the airframe of the center core. The engines are the same. The booster stage engines are all the same. The side boosters are the same as a regular Falcon 9, but just with a nose cap on and it's really this production rate of the airframe of the center core, including interstage. So we can really produce Falcon Heavies at a pretty rapid rate. Whatever the demand is, we'll be able to meet it.

Moderator: Your next question comes from the line of Tim Fernholz from Quartz. Your line is open.

Tim Fernholz, Quartz: Hi Elon, thank you for doing this today. Two questions. One, is the Falcon Heavy we see on the pad now, does that have all the capabilities currently advertised on the website, or are those numbers for a future configuration? And two, just on the demand front, do you have a sense of how many Heavies you'll be able to fly each year going forward, if this flight's a success?

Elon Musk: Yeah, the numbers on the website are for a full Block V Falcon Heavy. Assuming we've sort of tuned all the dials on performance. This Falcon Heavy is mostly Block IV, although you would be really hard-pressed to visually notice the difference between IV and V. And the next Falcon Heavy that flies would be Block V. So I mean it's an incredibly capable rocket. We can really dial it up to as much performance as anyone could ever want. If we wanted to, we could really add two more side boosters and make it Falcon Super Heavy, and then crank up thrust, probably get thrust upwards of 9 million pounds of thrust, or something like that. So that's an engine thrust increase and two extra side boosters.

Tim Fernholz, Quartz: [over Elon] But the BFR is the easier way to get there?

Elon Musk: [over Tim] Something interesting as far as the staging, you basically wouldn't need to light the center core in that situation. So that would give it a payload capability right on par with the Saturn V. Or very close. But we think that the new BFR architecture is a better way to go, because it would enable reusability of both the boost stage and upper stage and fairing, in a very high throughput way. BFR is sort of designed for being able to launch every few hours. Whereas the Falcon architecture is designed to be able to launch every few days, in an optimal situation. Yeah.

Moderator: Your next question comes from the line of Marcia Smith, from SpacePolicyOnline. Your line is open.

Marcia Smith, SpacePolicyOnline: Thanks so much for taking my call. I was hoping you could expand a little bit on your earlier answer about flying people around the moon and the BFR versus the Falcon Heavy, I'm not so sure I followed all of that. You said that the BFR is a big rocket and a big spaceship, and the big spaceship is just a year or so away from flight, but you'd be flying on something other than the BFR rocket? And with respect to sending people around the moon.

Elon Musk: Yeah. Falcon Heavy is absolutely capable of sending a Crew Dragon, Dragon version 2 that's under development and that we'll fly later this year for NASA. With a single stick Falcon 9, it's easy for us to do Low Earth Orbit missions, or Medium Earth Orbit missions, and then as soon as you add Falcon Heavy on, we can toss Dragon way past the moon. It's actually further than we went with Apollo. Possibly even visit an asteroid or something like that. That was our plan until last year. Then we though, you know, maybe we can make this BFR development go faster than we thought, and if that's true, there won't be much point in qualifying Falcon Heavy for launching Dragon, making it fully man-rated. So we kind of tabled the crewed Dragon on Falcon Heavy in favor of focusing our energies on BFR. Um, BFR consists of two parts. One is the ship and the other is the booster. So there's BRB, the booster. Which is kind of true, because it will Be Right Back. The booster's going to come back and land in probably about ten minutes after liftoff. And then the ship, which is the hardest part, just by far the hardest part of the vehicle, of the BFR system, or interplanetary transport system. Because the ship has to have a heatshield that's capable of re-entering from very high velocities. From velocities way higher than... Basically interplanetary velocities, as opposed to orbital velocities. It's got to control itself through a wide regime, from everything from vacuum, to rarefied gas. Everything from thin atmosphere to thick atmosphere. Hypersonic, supersonic, transonic, subsonic. Different types of atmosphere, from different planets. And then land on unimproved terrain, and be able to take off from unimproved terrain. That's a pretty ridiculous set of requirements for the ship. That's why we're focusing on the ship first, because it's kind of the hard part. And then the BFB (should I say BFB or BRB?) BFB is we think that's pretty straightforward, because it's pretty much like a Falcon boost stage, but with like 31 engines instead of 9.

Moderator: Your next question comes from the line of Dave Mosher from Business Insider. Your line is open.

Dave Mosher, Business Insider: Thanks to you. I want to return to the question about contingencies here. Elon, can you try to describe what the impact on the Falcon Heavy program will be if the launch does not go as planned? If it either explodes or there's some other issue. And then I also want to ask about your plan to do global satellite coverage, and how Falcon Heavy might play into that, to...

John Taylor, SpaceX: Don't talk...

Elon Musk: [laughs] Today's topic...is Falcon Heavy. So Falcon Heavy, yeah it'll be a real huge downer if it blows up. But hopefully we will have learned, if something goes wrong, hopefully it goes wrong far into the mission, so we at least learn as much as possible along the way. This is a test mission. As I said there's so much that can go wrong. So we don't want to set expectation of perfection, by any means. I would be happy, I would consider it a win if it just clears the pad and doesn't blow the pad to smithereens. I mean, that's four million pounds of TNT equivalent. There's really not going to be much left if that thing lets loose on the pad. So if it clears the pad and hopefully makes it through transonic and max-Q, I'd say those are big wins. And if the boosters are able to separate properly, that's another big win. And then we're kind of in a relatively normal regime, because it becomes like the Falcon 9 at that point, apart from that very long coast mission that occurs, the long tour through the Van Allen belts.

[свернуть]

Спойлер

Moderator: Your next question comes from the line of Stephen Clark with Spaceflight Now. Your line is open.

Stephen Clark: Thank you, Elon. I did have a question about that long coast. Can you go through, are there any modifications or upgrades that you're introducing on the upper stage on this particular launch, and does that long coast help satisfy a demonstration for some of the Air Force's and NRO direct GEO-insertion type missions? Thanks.

Elon Musk: Yeah, so the long coast is supposed to be designed to address the Air Force's need for a direct Geosynchronous Orbit insertion, meaning we do an initial burn to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit, and then circularize at GEO, which is an approximately six hour coast. So that's the main reason for that long coast. Yeah... [to John Taylor] who was on the phone?

John Taylor, SpaceX: Stephen, what was the second part of your question?

Elon Musk: Well, he's not here.

John Taylor, SpaceX: OK, Nicole?

Moderator: Your next question comes from the line of Mark Harris, from The Economist. Your line is open.

Mark Harris, The Economist: Oh, hi there, thanks for taking the call. Just to go back to the Roadster, is there going to be any instrumentation on the Roadster or in the spacesuit? And any communications tech for getting that information back to us?

Elon Musk: Yeah, so there's three cameras on the Roadster. And there's going to be a bunch of sensors on the upper stage, so we'll get a lot of data back. But, I mean the most fun stuff will be the three cameras that are mounted on the Roadster. They should really provide some epic views if they work, and everything goes well. I think I recall the other part of the last questioner, which is did we make upgrades to the upper stage of the rocket in order to enable the six hour coast. We did increase the, we have batteries that last longer, and we have additional pressurant gas for attitude control thrusters and settling. More than we normally would.

Moderator: Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Richardson, from the Orlando Business Journal. Your line is open.

Matthew Richardson, Orlando Business Journal: Hi Elon. Thank you so much for taking my question. So if anything goes wrong, how long might this put back your next try for the Falcon Heavy flight?

Elon Musk: Well, if it blows up the pad, that's going to be a real pain in the neck. That'd probably take us at least nine to twelve months to get the pad back in action. Maybe eight months? I don't know, that'd be the big problem. It won't affect production. So we have a steady production line, and so we'll be able to launch another Falcon Heavy as soon as the pad is ready. So if this one doesn't go right, we could launch another one probably in three or four months.

John Taylor, SpaceX: Nicole, we have time for one more question and I think it's Steve Gorman from Reuters, is that right?

Moderator: Correct. Your line is open.

John Taylor, SpaceX: That'll be the last question for today.

Steve Gorman, Reuters: So my question is, how's it looking for tomorrow at this point? As much as you can tell at this point, with weather forecasts and other technical issues, are you pretty confident that you're going to launch in tomorrow's window, or do you think there's a pretty good chance that you might have to postpone?

Elon Musk: Amazingly, it's looking like we're going to launch tomorrow. I felt for sure that something would delay us, that we would have some issue that we would discover on the rocket, or really bad weather. But the weather's looking good, the rocket's looking good. So, should be an exciting day tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. We'll try to have a good time no matter what happens. We will have a good time no matter what happens. It's either going to be.... It's guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another. It's either going to be an exciting success or an exciting failure. [laughs]. One big boom. So I'd say tune in. It's going to be worth your time. Thank you. Thanks everyone.

John Taylor, SpaceX: Nicole, I did want to tell the folks on the line that we will have a webcast tomorrow at spacex.com/webcast. About ten minutes before the launch opens. Twenty I'm told, okay, twenty minutes before the launch opens. And we'll have a lot more information on the webcast. Thanks everybody for your patience and for your time.

Moderator: This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.

[свернуть]

Цитироватьtestest пишет:

ЦитироватьЗловредный пишет:

ЦитироватьСуществует также вероятность, что SpaceX попытается посадить вторую ступень, но не для повторного использования, а для сбора данных и отработки технологии.

Ну и бред!

Это путаница в счете до трех. Некоторые второй ступенью называют верхнюю ступень с вакуумным двигателем, а некоторые второй ступенью называют центральный блок.

ЦитироватьХВ. пишет:
Что там со временем старта?

По прежнему 21:30 МСК?

ЦитироватьLaunch timeline for Falcon Heavy's maiden flight
February 6, 2018 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/) Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)

SpaceX's first Falcon Heavy rocket is set for liftoff Tuesday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the heavy-lift launcher will head on an easterly course over the Atlantic Ocean atop nearly 5 million pounds of thrust.

The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is poised for launch from pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida between 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT) at 4 p.m. EST (2100 gMT) Tuesday during a 150-minute launch window.

Спойлер

SpaceX will attempt to place a test payload — Elon Musk's road-worn Tesla sports car — on an Earth escape trajectory into heliocentric orbit around the sun.

Read our Mission Status Center (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/05/falcon-heavy-demo-flight-mission-status-center/) for live coverage of the countdown and launch.


Credit: SpaceX

Elon Musk tweeted a graphic Tuesday illustrating the various launch and descent maneuvers planned on today's Falcon Heavy demo flight, including recovery attempts for the three first stage boosters and payload fairing.

The timeline below outlines the launch sequence for the Falcon Heavy's inaugural flight. A final Earth departure maneuver by the Falcon Heavy's upper stage is planned around six hours after liftoff to send the Tesla Roadster on a path into the solar system.

Data source: SpaceX

T-0:00:00: Liftoff


The Falcon Heavy's engine controllers will command nine Merlin 1D engines on each of the rocket's side boosters to ignite at T-minus 5 seconds, following by start-up of the nine engines on the core stage at T-minus 3 seconds. Hold-down clamps will open to release the Falcon Heavy from launch pad 39A as the countdown clock reaches zero, once the vehicle passes an automated health check.

T+0:01:06: Max Q


The Falcon Heavy rocket reaches Max Q, the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure.

T+0:02:29: BECO


The Merlin 1D engines on the two side boosters shut down a few seconds before booster separation.

T+0:02:33: Booster Separation


The two 15-story-tall side boosters separate from the Falcon Heavy rocket to begin their descent back to Cape Canaveral.

T+0:02:50: Side Cores Begin Boostback Burn


After flipping around to fly tail-first, the Falcon Heavy's two side boosters each reignite three of their engines to begin their return to Cape Canaveral for landing.

T+0:03:04: MECO

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/31294.jpg)
The Falcon Heavy's nine core stage Merlin 1D engines shut down.

T+0:03:07: Stage Separation


The Falcon Heavy's center core stage separates from the second stage moments after MECO.

T+0:03:15: First Ignition of Second Stage


The second stage Merlin 1D vacuum engine ignites for a five-minute burn to put the rocket and its payload into a preliminary parking orbit.

T+0:03:24: Center Core Begins Boostback Burn


The Falcon Heavy's center booster reignites three of its engines to begin its descent to SpaceX's drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Atlantic Ocean.

T+0:03:49: Fairing Jettison


The 5.2-meter (17.1-foot) diameter payload fairing jettisons once the Falcon Heavy rocket ascends through the dense lower atmosphere. The 43-foot-tall fairing is made of two clamshell-like halves composed of carbon fiber with an aluminum honeycomb core.

T+0:06:41: Side Boosters Begin Entry Burn


The Falcon Heavy's two side boosters reignite a subset of their Merlin engines for an entry burn prior to touchdown.

T+0:06:47: Center Core Begins Entry Burn


The Falcon Heavy's center core stage begins its entry burn targeting SpaceX's drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

T+0:07:58: Side Booster Landing


The Falcon Heavy's two side boosters touch down at Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

T+0:08:19: Center Core Landing


The Falcon Heavy's central core stage touches down on "Of Course I Still Love You," SpaceX's drone ship positioned a few hundred miles east of Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic Ocean.

T+0:08:31: SECO 1


The second stage of the Falcon Heavy rocket shuts down after reaching a preliminary low-altitude orbit. The upper stage and and its payload — Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster sports car — begin a coast phase scheduled to nearly 20 minutes before the second stage Merlin vacuum engine reignites.

T+0:28:22: Second Ignition of Second Stage

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/31301.jpg)
The Falcon Heavy's second stage Merlin engine restarts to head into a higher orbit around Earth.

T+0:28:52: SECO 2

(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/31302.jpg)
The Merlin engine shuts down after a short burn to raise its orbit, beginning a final six-hour coast before the upper stage engine ignites for a third time.

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Цитироватьtestest пишет:
Время старта не стоит на месте - 23:10

Цитироватьandr59 пишет:

ЦитироватьХВ. пишет:
Что там со временем старта?

По прежнему 21:30 МСК?

22:50 мск.

Live Stream от газеты Florida Today

 https://livestream.com/accounts/20522137/SpaceXFalconHeavyLaunch

ЦитироватьJeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust) 5m ago (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960938777261871104)

Now they're updated. T-0 of 3:15 pm EST. Launch window closes at 4:00 pm.

ЦитироватьChris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF) 5m ago (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/960939240489185280)

Clock is now paused. NO T0. New launch time will be set "shortly." #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash)

Цитироватьandr59 пишет:

ЦитироватьХВ. пишет:
Что там со временем старта?

По прежнему 21:30 МСК?

22:50 мск.

Live Stream от газеты Florida Today

 https://livestream.com/accounts/20522137/SpaceXFalconHeavyLaunch

Цитироватьopinion пишет:
Пока что-нибудь не изменится можно считать, что в любой момент времени до старта 2 часа (они отодвигают время на 5 минут каждый раз когда остается 2 часа).

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
Забудьте вы про эту Теслу. Эту просто PR.

Вторичная цель, кроме собственно испытания Falcon Heavy, продемонстрировать возможность прямого вывода спутников на ГСО и тем самым доказать, что FH может полностью заменить Delta IV Heavy. А тут вопрос в очень приличных деньгах.

ЦитироватьХВ. пишет:

Цитироватьopinion пишет:
Пока что-нибудь не изменится можно считать, что в любой момент времени до старта 2 часа (они отодвигают время на 5 минут каждый раз когда остается 2 часа).

У Маска всё не как у нас. Даже интересно стало.

ЦитироватьTwo hours is becoming the new six months...

ЦитироватьJeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust) 3m ago (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960945547057270785)

No update on the Falcon Heavy countdown. Launch controllers will need to make a decision soon on whether to proceed with a launch near the end of the window (which closes at 4pm EST) or delay to tomorrow.

ЦитироватьJeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust) 1m ago (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960946573948669952)

3:45 pm T-0. Clock is counting

1m ago (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960946635466518528)

Controllers will evaluate conditions in about 20 minutes.

ЦитироватьJeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust) 2m ago (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960947064392835077)

Note that decision to load propellants into the Falcon Heavy is due at T-1:28 (T-88 minutes). If winds are still an issue, they may decide to call off the launch before beginning.

Цитироватьtnt22 пишет:

ЦитироватьJeff Foust ‏ @jeff_foust 1m ago (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960946573948669952)

 3:45 pm T-0. Clock is counting

 1m ago (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960946635466518528)

Controllers will evaluate conditions in about 20 minutes.

Цитироватьopinion пишет:
До закрытия стартового окна примерно 2 часа 20 минут.

ЦитироватьDeimos Imaging‏ @deimosimaging (https://twitter.com/deimosimaging) 5m ago (https://twitter.com/deimosimaging/status/960946379119058944)

#DEIMOS2 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/DEIMOS2?src=hash) just captured #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) vertical on the launch pad & Landing Zone 1 @NASAKennedy (https://twitter.com/NASAKennedy) today! Everything is ready for the giant rocket to blast off on its first test flight, if winds allow it! Good luck @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk)

ЦитироватьChris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF) 2m ago (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/960947890406469632)

Update: NO constraints at this time. Upper Level Winds will continue to be monitored #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash)

ЦитироватьChris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF) 1m ago (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/960948781301796865)

To clarify, "no constraints" means there's nothing - not even winds - RIGHT NOW that would prevent launch at 3:45p EST (20:45 UTC). Winds will continue to be monitored. Just bc conditions are acceptable now doesn't mean that will hold. That's why they'll keep watching the winds.

Цитировать02/06/2018 21:47 Stephen Clark

The Falcon Heavy countdown has resumed, targeting liftoff from pad 39A at 3:45 p.m. EST (2045 GMT). But the SpaceX launch team will re-evaluate upper level wind conditions in a few minutes, shortly before loading RP-1 fuel into the rocket.

There is one collision avoidance cutout in the remainder of today's launch window at 3:56 p.m. EST (2056 GMT). The Falcon Heavy cannot launch at that time to ensure it does not get too close to another object already in space.

High-pressure helium and nitrogen gas loading into the Falcon Heavy is proceeding normally at this time, and there are no significant issues with the launch pad or the rocket.

ЦитироватьElon Musk‏Verified account @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) 4m ago (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/960949244982018049)

Launch auto-sequence initiated (aka the holy mouse-click) for 3:45 liftoff #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash)

ЦитироватьChris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF) 49s ago (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/960953084980625409)

SpaceX launch team is moving through the final pre-fueling checks of the ground equipment and Falcon Heavy rocket. Fueling should start in 12mins. #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash)

ЦитироватьJeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust) 24s ago (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960955995865387010)

Go for propellant load.

ЦитироватьChris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF) 2m ago (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/960959431998623744)

All is quiet on the launch loop, indicating that all is going perfectly so far with RP-1 kerosene loading. #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash)

Цитироватьopinion пишет:

ЦитироватьЗловредный пишет:

Цитироватьtnt22 пишет:

Цитировать15 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960629934388588544)

Musk: if we wanted to, we could add to more side boosters, make it Falcon Super Heavy.

Не надо. Получится Ангара.

Чтобы получилась Ангара, нужно центральный блок разрезать на пять частей, а не боковые добавлять.

ЦитироватьЗловредный пишет:
Это был сарказм. Ангара у Маска никогда не получится. Маск, каким бы талантливым он ни был, просто неспособен создать Ангару.

Если бы это было в моей власти, руководителей российского космоса, уничтоживших, разворовавших, проевших и просравших великое наследие советской космической эпохи, я бы приказал расстрелять.

Цитироватьandr59 пишет:

Цитироватьtnt22 пишет:

ЦитироватьJeff Foust ‏ @jeff_foust 1m ago (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960946573948669952)

 3:45 pm T-0. Clock is counting

 1m ago (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/960946635466518528)

Controllers will evaluate conditions in about 20 minutes.

Да 23:45

 https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/960946702525128706

ЦитироватьХВ. пишет:

Цитироватьopinion пишет:
До закрытия стартового окна примерно 2 часа 20 минут.

Надо полагать, что через двадцать минут либо перестанут переносить старт через каждые 5 минут и объявят время сегодняшнего старта, либо через 20 минут перенесут старт на другое стартовое окно.

ЦитироватьSpaceX‏Verified account @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) 2m ago (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/960962632717975554)

T-60 minutes until Falcon Heavy's first test flight. Launch webcast will go live about 20 minutes before liftoff → http://spacex.com/webcast  (https://t.co/gtC39uBC7z)

ЦитироватьFeol пишет:

ЦитироватьЗловредный пишет:
Это был сарказм. Ангара у Маска никогда не получится. Маск, каким бы талантливым он ни был, просто неспособен создать Ангару.

Если бы это было в моей власти, руководителей российского космоса, уничтоживших, разворовавших, проевших и просравших великое наследие советской космической эпохи, я бы приказал расстрелять.

Зачем. Лучше Маску отдать, пусть посадит в ракету и на Марс рулят так же как отраслью.

ЦитироватьSpaceflight101 LIVE‏ @S101_Live (https://twitter.com/S101_Live) 2m ago (https://twitter.com/S101_Live/status/960963355937857536)

In the final hour of the count, #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) will receive an updated flight profile based on the latest measurements of Upper Level Winds for optimized load relief while the vehicle makes its way through the dense atmosphere.

ЦитироватьLaunch webcast will go live about 20 minutes before liftoff

ЦитироватьChris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF) 39s ago (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/960965449654652928)

The center core has been fueled to its topping level! #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash)

ЦитироватьNot пишет:
форум сглотнул предыдущее сообщение - у них только одна возможность старта в окне, из-за невозможности повторно охладить кислород.

ЦитироватьChris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF) 39s ago (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/960965720875159552)

And the two side cores have reached RP-1 kerosene fueling topping targets! No issues. #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash)

ЦитироватьЗловредный пишет:Зачем. Лучше Маску отдать, пусть посадит в ракету и на Марс рулят так же как отраслью.
Так нельзя. Казнь должна быть гуманной.

Цитировать02/06/2018 23:01  Stephen Clark

Super-chilled, densified liquid oxygen is now flowing into the Falcon Heavy rocket. All three boosters and the upper stage burn the same RP-1/liquid oxygen propellant mixture.

ЦитироватьMike Loucks‏ @Astrogator_Mike (https://twitter.com/Astrogator_Mike) 4m ago (https://twitter.com/Astrogator_Mike/status/960967115644723200)

My guess at the FH trajectory given the current 3:45 EST launch time. Insert to 6 hr orbit over Africa, TMI over South America 6 hours later, Aphelion in October, 2018, trailing Mars by ~20 degrees. Guesses: C3 =9 km^2/sec^2, guess of TMI location to align with Mars Orbit plane

Спойлер

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ЦитироватьNot пишет:

ЦитироватьВы ошиблись темой. Попробуйте не флудить.

Цитироватьpnetmon пишет:
https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c

ЦитироватьChris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) 2m ago (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/960974685256278016)

LZ-1 and LZ-2

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
Сейчас смотрят: 1 272 451 нихера се

ЦитироватьДмитрий Виницкий пишет:
Удивительно, но на двух разных трансляциях примерно в минуту разница в отсчете времени  :)  

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI8_bM1VMv4

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c&feature=youtu.be)

ЦитироватьLiss пишет:
Круть.
Боковухи сели, по посадке ЦБ данных нет, вторая ступень на опорной. Так?

ЦитироватьLiss пишет:
Круть.
Боковухи сели, по посадке ЦБ данных нет, вторая ступень на опорной. Так?

ЦитироватьЧитают тему (гостей: 260, пользователей: 60, из них скрытых: 6)

ЦитироватьMichael Seeley‏ @Mike_Seeley (https://twitter.com/Mike_Seeley) 3m ago (https://twitter.com/Mike_Seeley/status/960984524636217344)

This was unlike anything I've ever seen before: Congratulations @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) and the @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) team. I'll let my pictures of the #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash) #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) speak for themselves. Wow. Just, wow. (Pics by me / @WeReportSpace (https://twitter.com/WeReportSpace))

ЦитироватьSpaceflight101 LIVE‏ @S101_Live (https://twitter.com/S101_Live) 1m ago (https://twitter.com/S101_Live/status/960985375324991489)

The #FalconHeavy (https://twitter.com/hashtag/FalconHeavy?src=hash) should have completed its 30-second re-start at this time, boosting Tesla & Starman into an elliptical orbit with a period of around six hours. Earth departure maneuver around 3:20 UTC or thereabouts.

ЦитироватьFalcon Heavy Test Flight

(https://www.youtube.com/user/spacexchannel) SpaceX (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtI0Hodo5o5dUb67FeUjDeA)

ЦитироватьNot пишет:
ЦБ потерян, сразу после посадочного импульса.

ЗЫ: я полагаю, развесовка изменилась, соответственно изменились константы алгоритма управления, но видимо недотестировали - или раскачало, или промахнулись.

Цитировать02/07/2018 00:28 Stephen Clark

SpaceX fitted the Tesla Roadster with multiple on-board cameras. Here's what they saw after the upper stage reached space.

ЦитироватьПлейшнер пишет:

ЦитироватьLiss пишет:
Круть.
Боковухи сели, по посадке ЦБ данных нет , вторая ступень на опорной. Так?

Вроде бы сказали что креш.

ЦитироватьNot пишет:
ЦБ потерян, сразу после посадочного импульса.

ЦитироватьElon Musk‏Verified account @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) 3m ago (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/960988527159795712)

Upper stage restart nominal, apogee raised to 7000 km. Will spend 5 hours getting zapped in Van Allen belts & then attempt final burn for Mars.

ЦитироватьNot пишет:
ЦБ потерян, сразу после посадочного импульса.

ЦитироватьHrono пишет:
Откуда известно, что прямо сразу после посадочного импульса?

ЦитироватьSellin пишет: Спасибо, Нот, ты даже не представляешь, как мы сейчас ценим твои невероятно прозорливые предположения.

ЦитироватьGeorgea пишет:
Кстати, спейсы, похоже, попутали камеры на боковушках: в трансляции картинка шла с одной и той же камеры для обеих, насколько я вижу.

Цитироватьpnetmon пишет:
вид на автомобиль в прямом эфире https://youtu.be/aBr2kKAHN6M

ЦитироватьGeorgea пишет:
Раз до сих пор нет внятного подтверждения посадки центрального блока - очень вероятно, что крэш.
Ну надо же...

ЦитироватьНовый пишет:
Единственное что мне совершенно непонятно - как Илон Маск все это делает без попа с кадилом...

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
В момент отделения центрального блока скорость была 9400 км/ч или 2,7 км/с. Я при обычном флаконе в одноразовой варианте, сколько обычно?

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
В момент отделения центрального блока скорость была 9400 км/ч или 2,7 км/с. Я при обычном флаконе в одноразовой варианте, сколько обычно?

Цитироватьpnetmon пишет:
Вот когда бы он рукой двинул (привет Федор).....  :o   :o   :o  

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
В момент отделения центрального блока скорость была 9400 км/ч или 2,7 км/с. Я при обычном флаконе в одноразовой варианте, сколько обычно?

ЦитироватьGeorgea пишет:

Цитироватьpnetmon пишет:
вид на автомобиль в прямом эфире https://youtu.be/aBr2kKAHN6M

Хм, Родстер вращается вокруг поперечной оси. Разве так должно быть? Разве верхней ступени не положено сохранять ориентацию?

ЦитироватьGeorgea пишет:
Просыпается такой Рогозин с большоооого бодуна, а там

ЦитироватьNail пишет:
На 8.39 полета показывают платформу, видимо готовятся показать посадку центра.
В 8.40 платформу заволокло дымом (взрывом?) и трансляцию с платформы прервали черным экраном.

ЦитироватьGeorgea пишет:
Хм, Родстер вращается вокруг поперечной оси. Разве так должно быть? Разве верхней ступени не положено сохранять ориентацию?

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
В момент отделения центрального блока скорость была 9400 км/ч или 2,7 км/с. Я при обычном флаконе в одноразовой варианте, сколько обычно?

Примерно столько же. Рекорд 2720 м/с.

ЦитироватьНовый пишет:
Грандиозно, абсолютно грандиозно!

Единственное что мне совершенно непонятно - как Илон Маск все это делает без попа с кадилом...

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
В момент отделения центрального блока скорость была 9400 км/ч или 2,7 км/с. Я при обычном флаконе в одноразовой варианте, сколько обычно?

Примерно столько же. Рекорд 2720 м/с.

Цитироватьpnetmon пишет:
Вот когда бы он рукой двинул (привет Федор).....  :o   :o   :o

ЦитироватьАтяпа пишет:
Кстати, установлен автомобильный рекорд скорости.

Цитироватьdfln пишет:
Он же под углом находится на адаптере, поэтому создается впечатление двжиения вокруг поперечной оси

ЦитироватьGeorgea пишет:

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
В момент отделения центрального блока скорость была 9400 км/ч или 2,7 км/с. Я при обычном флаконе в одноразовой варианте, сколько обычно?

1,5 - 2 км/с обычно.

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
В момент отделения центрального блока скорость была 9400 км/ч или 2,7 км/с. Я при обычном флаконе в одноразовой варианте, сколько обычно?

Примерно столько же. Рекорд 2720 м/с.

Учитывая, что вторая ступень идентична, получается что Фалькон Хеви в варианте сегодняшнего запуска соответствует по своим возможностям обычному Фалькону в одноразовой исполнении.

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:
Примерно столько же. Рекорд 2720 м/с.

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
Учитывая, что вторая ступень идентична, получается что Фалькон Хеви в варианте сегодняшнего запуска соответствует по своим возможностям обычному Фалькону в одноразовой исполнении.

ЦитироватьNail пишет:
На 8.39 полета показывают платформу, видимо готовятся показать посадку центра.
В 8.40 платформу заволокло дымом (взрывом?) и трансляцию с платформы прервали черным экраном.

ЦитироватьАтяпа пишет:
Кстати, установлен автомобильный рекорд скорости.

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
В момент отделения центрального блока скорость была 9400 км/ч или 2,7 км/с. Я при обычном флаконе в одноразовой варианте, сколько обычно?

Примерно столько же. Рекорд 2720 м/с.

Учитывая, что вторая ступень идентична, получается что Фалькон Хеви в варианте сегодняшнего запуска соответствует по своим возможностям обычному Фалькону в одноразовой исполнении.

ЦитироватьАтяпа пишет:
Цела ли баржа?

ЦитироватьHrono пишет:

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:
Примерно столько же. Рекорд 2720 м/с.

В какой миссии это было? По-моему не было больше, чем 2,1-2,2 км/с.

ЦитироватьSGS_67 пишет:

ЦитироватьАтяпа пишет:
Кстати, установлен автомобильный рекорд скорости.

Пока еще не установлен.
И да, электромобильный.  ;)

ЦитироватьДем пишет:

ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:
Учитывая, что вторая ступень идентична, получается что Фалькон Хеви в варианте сегодняшнего запуска соответствует по своим возможностям обычному Фалькону в одноразовой исполнении.

не забываем что тут Блок2/Блок3, а с ПН летать будет Блок5

Цитироватьopinion пишет:

ЦитироватьАтяпа пишет:
Кстати, установлен автомобильный рекорд скорости.

Автомобили летали на Луну

ЦитироватьNot пишет:
ЦБ потерян, сразу после посадочного импульса.

ЗЫ: я полагаю, развесовка изменилась, соответственно изменились константы алгоритма управления, но видимо недотестировали

ЦитироватьНу-и-ну пишет:
Потеря связи?

ЦитироватьNot пишет:

ЦитироватьSGS_67 пишет:

ЦитироватьАтяпа пишет:
Кстати, установлен автомобильный рекорд скорости.

Пока еще не установлен.
И да, электромобильный.  ;)  

Про луноходы не забываем  ;)

ЦитироватьMike Loucks‏ @Astrogator_Mike (https://twitter.com/Astrogator_Mike) 37m ago (https://twitter.com/Astrogator_Mike/status/960998087295561728)

Updated guess of FH trajectory. If apogee at 7000 km, then 2 revs there before TMI. TMI ~ 3:45 UTC. Upping C3 guess to 15 km^2/sec^2, closest approach to Mars in October still, but a bit closer at ~14 degrees.

ЦитироватьНовый пишет:
Грандиозно, абсолютно грандиозно!

Единственное что мне совершенно непонятно - как Илон Маск все это делает без попа с кадилом...

ЦитироватьНовый пишет:
Единственное что мне совершенно непонятно - как Илон Маск все это делает без попа с кадилом...

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:

ЦитироватьHrono пишет:

ЦитироватьApollo13 пишет:
Примерно столько же. Рекорд 2720 м/с.

В какой миссии это было? По-моему не было больше, чем 2,1-2,2 км/с.

Inmarsat-5 F4

ЦитироватьDenis Voronin пишет:
Интересно на сколько вырастут продажи Теслы? ТАКОЙ рекламы мир ещё не видел!

Цитировать

Цитировать

ЦитироватьWell, Tesla now holds the world's record for most mileage of an electric vehicle on a single charge!

Let's be fair... it's really more of a hybrid vehicle this time...

ЦитироватьBrady Kenniston‏ @TheFavoritist (https://twitter.com/TheFavoritist) 2m ago (https://twitter.com/TheFavoritist/status/961009750690410496)

Ohh my god @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF) & @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight)! Remote number one from Falcon Heavy!

ЦитироватьNot пишет:

ЦитироватьНу-и-ну пишет:
Потеря связи?

А перед этим какая то белая субстанция появилась на стекле гермошлема. Похоже блеванул наш герой  :D

ЦитироватьV.B. пишет:
Что за темная полоска, правее центра лобового стекла на первом кадре и справа на втором?

 

ЦитироватьNot пишет:
Триплекс газит и расслаивается. Пошла обещанная деградация материалов.

ЦитироватьDiZed пишет:

ЦитироватьNot пишет:
Триплекс газит и расслаивается. Пошла обещанная деградация материалов.

судя по состоянию интеллекта Нот-а - он уже не раз побывал в космосе

ЦитироватьNot пишет:

ЦитироватьV.B. пишет:
Что за темная полоска, правее центра лобового стекла на первом кадре и справа на втором?

 

Триплекс газит и расслаивается. Пошла обещанная деградация материалов.