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Elon Musk Shows Off Near-Complete Falcon Heavy Rocket (newatlas.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the long-time-coming dept.

Eloking quotes a report from New Atlas: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket has been a long time coming. The successor to its Falcon 9 and the vehicle hoped to carry humans to Mars, this booster will be one of the most powerful ever. And we've just gotten our best look at it yet, with CEO Elon Musk tweeting out photos of an almost complete Falcon 9 Heavy in the hangar ahead of a planned maiden launch next month. The Falcon Heavy is essentially three Falcon 9 first stages rolled into one, with a second stage sat atop the middle one. The nine engine cores in each first stage work together to provide thrust equal to eighteen 747 aircraft, making it the most powerful rocket currently in operation and the most powerful since the Saturn V rocket last lifted off in 1973. In a series of tweets, Musk revealed that when the Falcon Heavy does lift off for the first time, it will do so from the same pad used by the Saturn V rocket at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Musk has said recently that the Falcon Heavy will carry his own cherry-red Tesla Roadster as its first payload, but as an earlier tweet professing his love for floors has shown, it's not always easy to tell how serious he is about such matters.

2 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Lucky.... by beheaderaswp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you are a live now, have been born from 1960 onwards, you are privileged. As am I.

    We've seen the computer revolution, Internet revolution, and now a space revolution.

    Jobs will be diminished, Musk will be remembered.

    --
    Another consultant who stuck it out.

    "We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
    1. Re:Lucky.... by Megane · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We remember Henry Ford more than we remember Karl Benz. This is a rocket that almost does what another one did a few times 50 years ago in a skunk works project with strong financial backing from a large government, a level of financial backing that only lasted a decade or so. SpaceX also is starting to account for a major fraction of all space launches as of 2017.

      Oh yeah, and there's that minor detail about getting an orbital rocket's first stage to land on its tail like some 1950s space opera flick, then nailing all the next 20 attempts in a row after the first success. They didn't do that 50 years ago. So F9 certainly has made history. But if you're saying FH won't be historic, I won't disagree with that, it seems destined to become a footnote between F9 and BFR.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }