Posted on 04/12/2019 3:42:51 AM PDT by C19fan
paceX's Falcon Heavy rocket successfully took its second flight ever on Thursday afternoon, when it lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying Lockheed Martin's Arabsat 6A communications satellite. As if that weren't exciting enough, SpaceX also managed to make history by landing three boosters back on Earth for the first time. Just minutes into the launch, the giant rocket's central core landed safely on SpaceX's offshore barge in the Atlantic Ocean, dubbed 'Of Course I Still Love You,' while the two side boosters landed back on pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Landing Zone 1 and 2. 'We have landed the center core for the first time,' a SpaceX announcer said. 'Three for three boosters today for the Falcon Heavy.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
That’s exciting.
A moment to savor....the US is back in space in a big way.
The Euro-weinies and Russians are suddenly also-rans.
There’s so much going on, these Falcon Heavy launches are great. I enjoy the employees screaming and cheering in the background.
They recovered the fairings, too, which will be reused next month when SpaceX starts launching their own communications network called Starlink.
The effects of this on the launch industry can not be overstated. This really is a game changer. Cutting the cost of launches by nearly 50%. The funny thing is the big players (or former big players before Space X) Arianespace and Boeing, had both researched this in the 80’s and 90’s and declared it to be “impossible”. Of course a cynic might argue there was no financial incentive for them to reduce launch costs. A few weeks ago Arianespace quietly announced they to were moving to a reusable platform (but being a decade behind Space-X they have a long way to go).
Thanks to a legal African American immigrant and our capitalistic system, we’re in front again.
They recovered the fairings, too, which will be reused next month when SpaceX starts launching their own communications network called Starlink.
i think you mean SkyNet...
Caught a glimpse of the launch from the Georgia coast.
This really is a game changer. Cutting the cost of launches by nearly 50%.
...
SpaceX already dominates the commercial launch industry. But when it comes to government launches SpaceX makes less because they can do it for less, but Boeing makes more because the need more and they ask for more. Boeing gets away with it since the government wants at least two launchers.
Seeing launches since Apollo 11 to present day launches I marvel at the experience of witnessing a launch and then a landing of boosters 8 minutes later!
Too cool!!!
AS long as it hurts Comcast I’m all for it.
The recovery is impressive, at sea as well, job well done.
+.
Elon Musk is certainly delivering with SpaceX.
I only saw 2 rockets landing. Where is the 3rd one?
Th video loops to the next video of the landing on the barge at sea.
Side boosters really don’t go very far; they turn around and land back at Canaveral. Center booster goes farther, faster, and rather than turning around it lands on a ship at sea. The way Falcon Heavy works, we’ll never see all three landing simultaneously.
The center booster landed on their barge in the Atlantic. The side boosters are what you saw landing back in Florida.
The center booster traveled farther and had a faster velocity than the side booster so the central booster wasn't able to return to Florida.
I think the deal is Elon Musk stays as far away from SpaceX as possible.
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