2018 to be a Busy Year in Space

**Syne** · Feb 5, 2018 04:08 AM

Ooo, simultaneous landings. Fingers-crossed.

**Yazata** · Feb 5, 2018 08:40 PM

SpaceX is preparing their live-stream for the first Falcon Heavy test flight. (Tuesday Feb 6, 1:30 PM EST)

http://www.spacex.com/webcast

The live video should be here tomorrow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c

**Yazata** · (This post was last modified: Feb 6, 2018 06:17 AM by Yazata.)

Elon's pucker factor is getting worse.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/02/...f-success/

When he showed up at the pad today, he told a reporter from Ars Technica, "There's a lot that could go wrong," Musk admitted. "A really tremendous amount. I really like to emphasize that the odds of success are not super high. I don't want to jinx it -- I'm tempted to say. Because I feel super optimistic. But I feel as though that optimism has no basis in fact. I feel like we've got a two-thirds chance of success, but in reality we only have a 50-50-chance."

"One of my biggest concerns is booster-to-booster interaction," Musk explained. "You've got a lot of dynamics going on there. Those rockets are very flexible; if they flex in unexpected ways they could potentially impact one another."

And here's a very cool animation of tomorrow's flight (minus the possible explosions, but with a David Bowie soundtrack) showing the launch, the choreographed aerobatics of the boosters as they return to simultaneously land at Cape Canaveral, and finally Elon Musk's Tesla, steered by an (empty) spacesuit (one of SpaceX's stylish new designer suits, not a bulky NASA one), driving endlessly through interplanetary space for billions of years. (Until some of MR's aliens find it and start waving their tentacles in consternation.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_conti...k338VXcb24

Elon provided some new news today. First, they seem to have abandoned the plan to fly people around the Moon using the Falcon Heavy. Instead, they want to concentrate their efforts on the new 'BFR' (an honest-to-God spaceship capable of taking humans anywhere in the Solar System). And Musk said that when they get the Falcon Heavy working, they will explore upgrading it with four additional 'strap-on' boosters around the central core, instead of the current two, putting it in the Saturn V class as a heavy lifter.

**Yazata** · Feb 6, 2018 07:51 PM

They are pushing back the launch time due to high altitude winds being above specification. The tentative launch time right now is about 3:00 PM EST today. If the winds don't subside, they may have to reschedule to tomorrow. (My gut tells me they won't go today.)

**Syne** · (This post was last modified: Feb 6, 2018 09:58 PM by Syne.)

They say they're go for launch, T-17 minutes.

Good launch and beautiful simultaneous side booster landings.
No word yet on the main booster barge landing.

**Yazata** · (This post was last modified: Feb 7, 2018 12:03 AM by Yazata.)

(Feb 6, 2018 09:28 PM)Syne Wrote: Good launch and beautiful simultaneous side booster landings.

Photo of them landing here:

Quote:No word yet on the main booster barge landing.

Given the lack of word, I'm guessing that it didn't make it.

**Magical Realist** · (This post was last modified: Feb 6, 2018 10:34 PM by Magical Realist.)

The animation show them releasing the Tesla into space. Is that really what they're doing?

**Yazata** · Feb 6, 2018 10:44 PM

(Feb 6, 2018 10:34 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: The animation show them releasing the Tesla into space. Is that really what they're doing?

Yeah. The sports car and its very laid-back nonchalant driver are headed on their way out past Mars into eternal orbit around the Sun.

Normally what they do when they initially test new rockets is ballast them with blocks of concrete or metal to simulate payload mass. Elon Musk thought that sending his own car into space was cooler.

**Magical Realist** · Feb 6, 2018 10:50 PM

(Feb 6, 2018 10:44 PM)Yazata Wrote:
(Feb 6, 2018 10:34 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: The animation show them releasing the Tesla into space. Is that really what they're doing?

Yeah. The sports car and its very laid-back nonchalant driver are headed on their way out past Mars into eternal orbit around the Sun.

Normally what they do when they initially test new rockets is ballast them with blocks of concrete or metal to simulate payload mass. Elon Musk thought that sending his own car into space was cooler.

it is cooler. It's like science mixed with art.

**Yazata** · (This post was last modified: Feb 6, 2018 11:54 PM by Yazata.)

(Feb 6, 2018 10:34 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: it is cooler. It's like science mixed with art.

SpaceX has several live camera feeds from the car. (The car appears to be slowly rotating.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAH...e=youtu.be

I believe that it might be still attached to the second stage at this point, which is coasting to geosynchronous orbit. (SpaceX wants to demonstrate to potential customers that they can deliver payloads there. Then the second stage will light up again to inject the automobile into an Earth-Mars Hohmann transfer orbit, at which point the car should separate from the second state just like deep space probes and Mars landers do.