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Posted on 02/06/2018 8:42:54 PM PST by WMarshal
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - The world's most powerful rocket, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, roared into space through clear blue skies in its debut test flight on Tuesday from a Florida launch site where moon missions once began, in another milestone for billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's private rocket service. ..... Then, capitalizing on cost-cutting reusable rocket technology pioneered by SpaceX, the two boosters flew themselves back to Earth for safe simultaneous touchdowns on twin landing pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, about eight minutes after launch. Each rocket unleashed a double sonic boom as it neared the landing zone.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
I just want America to have a very strong comfortable lead on this front. Not have China or whoever immediately tailing behind.
“Space exploration is a great subject for science fiction, but is centuries away from practical travel. Get back to me with proof we actually went to the moon....label me a skeptic and a KOOK!”
No need.
Payload will exceed Mars orbit, and approach asteroid belt. Open for deliveries?
Maybe center tank didnt get filled up enough. Or because it went higher and burned for more time than the two side boosters that detached earlier, it needed more for its descent.
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They use a special chemical to start the engines. For some reason there wasn’t enough to start two of three engines for the the last burn. SpaceX has been igniting these engines for a long time now without any problem, so my guess is some type of damage that caused it to leak.
I think you’re a bit too optimistic - I’d guess 2050 to 2060 for routine mining operations in the asteroid belt.
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Speaking of that, the final burn of the second stage was successful, and Musk’s Tesla is going out beyond Mars to the asteroid belt.
Many are citing the dual landing of the boosters as their favorite part of the launch. Plus they brought back their titanium grid fins which are very expensive and the only parts that will be reused this time.
It is amazing and now it’s going beyond Mars to the Asteroid belt.
Yes....I heard him speak about that as well..and he thought even very significant since he said they weren’t sure it would even go off as planned...50/50 odds.
“The impetus behind SpaceX” according to biography:
There’s a nice big optical and radar reflector on the moon you can see with a home telescope. Apollo missions left it there.
Observatories all over the world watched the moon landings via their larger telescopes at the time.
According to NASA.....The Falcon Heavy can lift over double the payload, or cargo, as the next closest rocket, as it is designed for potential human spaceflight—perhaps back to the Moon or even Mars in the future. To put it in perspective, the rocket’s first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores, totaling 27 Merlin engines. Additionally, the second stage’s engine can be restarted many times, making multiple orbits possible.
Rocket craft landing as God and Robert Heinlein intended.
It is highly amusing that NASA is now desperately dependent on the very space industry and technologies they so fervently spent the 80s, 90s and 2000s to kill.
Maybe too many old foggies holding back the courageous and daring minds of the younger ones to ‘Dare’ step out of the safe zones......
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