On February 6, 2018, SpaceX successfully launched a heavy-lift rocket called Falcon Heavy, making it “the world’s most powerful booster since NASA’s Saturn V.” For dummy payload, a Tesla Roadster belonging to SpaceX founder and Tesla co-founder Elon Musk was launched into space, too. In the driver’s seat sat a mannequin dressed in a SpaceX spacesuit.
The historic test flight has been captured in a video montage created by Westworld creator Jonathan Nolan and set to David Bowie‘s song Life on Mars? You can also catch a glimpse of the third booster as it crashes near the drone ship on which it was aiming to land.
When Falcon Heavy lifted off, it became 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.
Following liftoff, the two side boosters separated from the center core and returned to landing site for future reuse.
Falcon Heavy put a Tesla Roadster and its passenger, Starman, into orbit around the sun. At max velocity Starman and the Roadster will travel 11 km/s (7mi/s) and travel 400 million km (250 million mi) from Earth.
The roadster was live streamed in space after launch:
Next: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 crashes & landings, SpaceX’s Grasshopper hover and landing, and Falcon 9 falls back to Earth to The Blue Danube.Bonus: The Chemistry of Rockets: How do rockets work?
via Petapixel.
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