Author Topic: SpaceX FH : Falcon Heavy Demo : Feb. 6, 2018 : Updates (Read 630131 times)

rockets4life97 · « **Reply #820 on:** 02/07/2018 07:31 am »

Way to go SpaceX! A successful test mission and demonstration done with style!

The shots of the earth, spaceman, and the roadster were epic!

FutureSpaceTourist · « **Reply #821 on:** 02/07/2018 08:08 am »

Eric Berger, as always, worth a read:

Quote

This may be the moment SpaceX opened the cosmos to the masses
“It gives me confidence that BFR is really quite workable.”

by Eric Berger - Feb 7, 2018 2:18am GMT

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/02/this-may-be-the-moment-spacex-opened-the-cosmos-to-the-masses/

robertross · « **Reply #822 on:** 02/07/2018 08:55 am »

I offer my congratulations to SpaceX, the teams on the ground, and to Elon Musk for bringing this dream to reality.

What an incredible moment to have seen that live. The twin landings made me giddy, but seeing that car with planet Earth below was something to behold. I hope it created a huge stir in children around the world thinking that their dreams can become a reality too.

Thank you Mr. Musk, and to the NSF team here for bringing it all to us (kids at heart).

What a great moment in the history of spaceflight.

Steven Pietrobon · « **Reply #823 on:** 02/07/2018 09:11 am »

OK, for C3 = 34 km²/s² I get delta-V = sqrt(2*7.8²+34)-7.8 = 4.68 km/s. That will definitely get you to Mars at any opportunity!

Star One · « **Reply #824 on:** 02/07/2018 10:14 am »

Now that Starman is successfully on his way a congratulations to all involved in this amazing launch.

jebbo · « **Reply #825 on:** 02/07/2018 11:59 am »

Quote

For those interested in @Spacex #spaceman, I've done a quick orbital integration for the next 10,000 years assuming a reasonable orbit.

Basically the @Tesla Speedster is ok, but the orbit slowly elongates by gravitational perturbations and starts getting kicked about by Jupiter

https://twitter.com/FitzsimmonsAlan/status/961221507216281602

dawei · « **Reply #826 on:** 02/07/2018 12:53 pm »

Absolutely FANTASTIC! Major kudos to all who made it happen and a big hat tip to all those from NSF who helped make this coverage happen. It's an honor to witness history.

laszlo · « **Reply #827 on:** 02/07/2018 12:58 pm »

I grabbed charleysnow's and pmonta's burn 3 images and did a little processing and here's what I got.

daver · « **Reply #828 on:** 02/07/2018 01:03 pm »

Watched the launch and landing from next to Fish Lips. Brought tears to my eyes after the landings and sonic booms. Thank you Elon, SpaceX, and everyone who made that awesome display possible.

mr_magoo · « **Reply #829 on:** 02/07/2018 02:12 pm »

Belated congratulations to Space X. I watched it from the beach in Titusville and it was quite a show. There were so many people that phone internet was dead so I didn't have a cheat sheet for mission milestones or success call outs. The sudden appearance of the re-entry burns got a big cheer. Great stuff.

Citabria · « **Reply #830 on:** 02/07/2018 02:42 pm »

With an orbital period of nearly 2.4 years, Starman should pass close to Earth again in 12 years.

wjbarnett · « **Reply #831 on:** 02/07/2018 02:48 pm »

With successful orbit confirmed, now I'll add my congratulations to SpaceX! Plus thanks to everyone here at NSF that has contributed to the coverage. This is a wide-flung community, but it's one I'm happy to be a part of!

FutureSpaceTourist · « **Reply #832 on:** 02/07/2018 03:14 pm »

Quote

wo Falcon Boosters standing tall on the shores of Cape Canaveral after a historic launch and landing.

https://twitter.com/NASA_Nerd/status/961257201443786752

ugordan · « **Reply #833 on:** 02/07/2018 03:19 pm »

Space Ghost 1962 · « **Reply #834 on:** 02/07/2018 05:14 pm »

Congrats SpaceX!

Looks like a cluster vehicle that will be economically successful, beats the pants off all its current competition on cost alone, and likely flight cadence i(if they use it). (Only shortcoming is top SC velocity, but hard/impossible to see how you could get that with a low cost kerolox vehicle). Now they stand ready to filch ALL GSO/GTO payloads!

Another less obvious win is that it dooms the economics of frequent solids as strap-ons/side boosters. (Infrequent use solids are still valuable due to costs driven by unique payloads needing to be flown apart from the mainstream, at much higher cost.)

Know it's unreal, but ... large ground lit hydrolox cores with high expansion/iSP propulsion could be lofted by 6 (or more) F9 boosters, also landing and reused, as strap-ons ... prior to a BFR, this would be a very powerful SHLV architecture that seems feasible in the short term, although quite galling to many to consider. Amusing.

Can't wait for the next FH launch. Best.

add:

Imagine a 10-16 meter diameter core, subcooled hydrolox, outer jettisionable ring of modified RS-68A with higher expansion nozzles (optimized for ascent), inner modified/uprated J-2X group with even larger expansion and higher iSP (optimized for in-space ala RL10/60). Only payload on top. Last SHLV partially reusable vehicle.

Expendable goes out with a bang?

Better than a whimper.

FutureSpaceTourist · « **Reply #835 on:** 02/07/2018 07:31 pm »

Nice shots I haven’t seen posted:

Quote

Game changer. Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. Congrats @elonmusk and @SpaceX #SpaceX #FalconHeavyLaunch #FalconHeavy

https://twitter.com/timelapsejunkie/status/961335283215159296

billh · « **Reply #836 on:** 02/07/2018 07:31 pm »

Congratulations to SpaceX on the amazing inaugural flight of a groundbreaking new rocket.

Testraindrop · « **Reply #837 on:** 02/07/2018 08:53 pm »

Now its time for me as well to say congrats to Elon and SpaceX.

The 21st century has now officially begun, if you believe in your dreams, you can make them come true.

I am too young for Apollo or the first Space Shuttle flight, but still had a big interest in space when I was a kid, somehow this got lost.
But SpaceX and the landings of the 1st stages woke my interest again in the space game. Finally we are not using 60s tech anymore.

The FH launch was my Apollo moment I guess

Incredibly all milestones of the main mission were reached and the two boosters landing simultaneously were gorgeous. I'm sure SpaceX will fix the issue with the center core engine relights.

I wish SpaceX and Elon will be also successful with BFR and P2P hops are really going to happen, I really want to see such a great piece of technology with my own eyes. It would be even more incredible to actually fly in one.

Thanks again to Elon to rise public interest into space again.

pb2000 · « **Reply #838 on:** 02/07/2018 09:08 pm »

Quote from: Elon Musk

Last pic of Starman in Roadster on its journey to Mars orbit and then the Asteroid Belt

https://www.instagram.com/p/Be6VZEzgAEk/

Edit: There's a higher res version in L2 FH pictures and video thread for anyone interested.

john smith 19 · « **Reply #839 on:** 02/07/2018 09:25 pm »

Belated congratulations to SX. This is excellent news.

While some may consider the payload a bit frivolous I think the launch has achieved all the goals it needed to.

Till now SX has not launched a payload it directly controlled beyond GEO. Now it has.

Keep in mind even something as simple as the shear number of engines has not been attempted since the N-1,which never made orbit once. This has raised SX's knowledebase in a myriad of areas by a substantial amount and has (I suspect) retired some of the risks of the BFR/BFS architecture.