SpaceX Heavy Falcon Launches Tesla Roadster out to the Asteroids

The SpaceX Heavy Falcon sits on the pad the night before First Flight. All images credit: SpaceX.

In a bold, and risky test flight, SpaceX has created the world's currently-heaviest payload lifting rocket. The Heavy Falcon is basically a center prime stage with two attached Falcon-9 recoverable boosters to the sides. A second stage and payload sit atop the prime stage, which is also designed to land and be re-used. Until Wednesday, the rocket with the most lift was the Delta 4 rocket. The Falcon Heavy can lift a payload of 140,000 pounds to low Earth obit, 58,000 ponds to Earth Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit, and if needed, can launch over 37,000 pounds to Mars.  Only the giant Saturn V and perhaps the Russian Energia, both retired, could lift more.

Blast off on Wednesday afternoon after high winds abated.

The Falcon Heavy lifted off from the venerable Pad LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center. This site was heavily used for most of the Apollo moon launches, followed by Skylab and then Space Shuttle launches. A few years ago, the Space Center signed a 20-year lease with SpaceX. The older tower support structures were removed, and SpaceX built a new tower system with rocket assembly and testing features around the pad. 

The Falcon-9 boosters landed perfectly back at the cape, at almost the same time.

Prior to the launch, Space X executives were keen to remind everyone that this as an extremely dangerous test, and it could fail. But alomst everything went right. As planned, the boosters separated and were remotely-guided down to land vertically at launch pads LZ-1 and LZ-2. These pads were built by SpaceX at the US Air Force's Cape Canaveral range just a little south of the Kennedy Space center. The site was originally Launch Complex 13, which supported testing and launches of the Atlas and Atlas-Agena rockets. Science missions Lunar Orbiter-1 and Mariner 3 were launched from there, as well as several spy satellites. Unfortunately, the prime center stage did not land successfully and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.

The StarMan, in its SpaceX designed spacesuit, leaves Earth Orbit on its way to the Asteroid belt.

To confirm the test launch heavy lift capability, SpaceX needed a heavy object to launch into space. In a creative publicity move, SpaceX President Elon Musk donated a car from his personal collection - a Tesla Roadster with the convertible top down. Inside was "Starman" a dummy placed in a SpaceX spacesuit. Cameras on board the car recorded and transmitted images in different directions as the car left the orbit and continued its way out to space- estimated to be an orbit near the asteroid belt. In a tribute to some science fiction icons, a Screen in the car displays "Don't Panic" and the Starman has his space-traveling towel. A miniature Tesla car hangs from the front mirror. And the radio is broadcasting David Bowie's hit "Space Oddity" as long as power holds out.

Click here to watch live views from the Roadster. 

 

Click here to watch a tribute to the launch of the Falcon Heavy to the music of "Space Oddity".

Dragon Undocks and EVAs mark the beginning of 2018 on ISS.

Dragon cargo spacecraft safely back on Earth on the recovery ship.

Full of returning experiments, science samples, and items for further testing, the Dragon cargo spaceship undocked from the ISS on January 13. Surviving the fiery re-entry, the craft parachuted down to the Pacific Ocean and was recovered by SpaceX teams which will prepare the ship for returning to SpaceX and to NASA.

 

 

 Astronaut Scott Tingle prepares for the year's first EVA.

 

January and February start off with EVAs on the International Space Station. On January 23, astronauts Mark Vande-Hei and Scott Tingle conducted EVA-47 to replace parts on the Robotic Arm. Once outside the airlock, the spacewalkers removed the spare part from a locker on the outside of the station and replaced the faulty part on the arm. Unfortunately there is a software issue with the activation of the part, which will result in a further spacewalk later in February.

 

Russian Cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin (R) and Anton Shkaplerov (L) prepare to exit the airlock for their EVA.

February 2nd saw the second EVA when cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Alexander Misurka exited the PIRS module to perform maintenance work. This was Misurkin's fourth spacewalk. They successfully moved to the Zvesda module and replaced a faulty electronics box for a high-gain radio communications system. The bad parts were jettisoned towards a burn-up in the atmosphere. This station marked the 207th EVA for maintenance on the spacestation, including both American and Russian spacewalks. Typical for space agencies, this is also known as the Russian EVA-44 spacewalk. I'm not sure that I can comprehend how they keep track of these things when they have duplicate designations... 

Cosmonauts moving about the Zvesda module.

The EVA concluded after 8 hours and 13 minutes, which makes it the longest Russian spacewalk. Coming up on the ISS: A Russian Progress Cargo ship will take off on Sunday Feb. 11, and another US EVA in this coming week.