Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 6 February 2018
SpaceX bucks launch tradition in 1st flight of new rocket

By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
(AP) — SpaceX is bucking
decades of launch tradi-
tion for the first test flight of
its new megarocket.
The Falcon Heavy is set to
become the world's most
powerful rocket in use to-
day when it blasts off from
Florida's Kennedy Space
Center. None of the usu-
al, no-big-deal-if-it's-de-
stroyed launch ballast —
like steel or concrete slabs,
or mundane experiments
— for this curtain raiser.
Instead, the rocket will be
hauling a red sports con-
vertible with a space-suit-
ed dummy at the wheel
and David Bowie's "Space
Oddity" on the soundtrack.
It's the inspiration of Elon
Musk, the high-tech, sci-
ence fiction-loving maver-
ick who heads SpaceX and
electric carmaker Tesla.
More about the Tues-
day afternoon's planned This Dec. 28, 2017 photo made available by SpaceX shows a Falcon Heavy rocket in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Associated Press
launch:
ROCKET STATS: by a factor of two — but marketing, he's put his own ing laps for a billion years. safe just in case the Saturn
The Falcon Heavy has less than NASA's old space cherry-red Tesla Roadster Musk has Mars directly in V exploded on the pad.
three first-stage boosters, shuttles and Saturn V moon on the Heavy's inaugural his long-range sights. He's COMPETITION: Blue Origin,
strapped together with rockets. Two of the Heavy's flight. It is one of the car intent on establishing a an aerospace company
27 engines in all. Stretch- boosters are recycled; company's original Road- city on the red planet, run by another billionaire, is
ing 40 feet (12 meters) at they have flown on pre- sters. The flying convertible with hordes of Earthlings developing a large orbital-
the base and standing 230 vious Falcon 9 launches. has a space-suited-dum- and building materials fly- class rocket that promises
feet (70 meters) tall, the Once spent, they will aim my at the wheel and Da- ing there on a super-extra- to give Heavy an out-of-
Heavy is a triple dose of the for side-by-side vertical vid Bowie's "Space Odd- mega SpaceX rocket that this-world run for its money.
Falcon 9, the company's touchdowns at Cape Ca- ity" on the soundtrack. No is still pretty much on the Amazon's Jeff Bezos, the
frequent flyer with just a naveral. The brand new, car has ever rocketed into drawing boards. force behind Blue Origin,
single booster. At liftoff, the center core will attempt to space before, if you don't HISTORICDEPARTURE POINT: offered Musk "best of luck"
Heavy packs about 5 mil- land on an ocean barge. count NASA's Apollo-era The Falcon Heavy is flying Monday. "Hoping for a
lion pounds of thrust. That's CAR STATS: moon buggies, still parked from the same launch pad beautiful, nominal flight!"
more liftoff punch than SpaceX's Elon Musk also on the lunar surface. The used by NASA to send men Bezos wrote via Twitter. In
any other rocket currently runs the electric car maker Federal Aviation Adminis- to the moon. SpaceX leas- the language of rocket
operating in the world — Tesla. So in a bit of cross- tration had to sign off on es Launch Complex 39A scientists, "nominal" means
the Heavy-Tesla combo. from NASA. Not only did the rocket behaves and
It's at the top of the rock- LC-39A, as it's known, serve the cargo reaches its tar-
et, enclosed for liftoff. The as the departure point for get. NASA, meanwhile, is
protective cover will drop all the Apollo moonshots sinking billions of dollars
away, allowing the car to from 1968 to 1972, it was into a massive new rocket
travel on its way. the scene for most of the called the Space Launch
DESTINATION: space shuttle liftoffs. It's lo- System, or SLS, that's meant
SpaceX is targeting a long, cation at Kennedy Space to return astronauts to the
oval orbit around the sun Center keeps people at moon and also get them
for the Roadster that will least three miles away, a one day to Mars.
take the car as far out as distance determined by FUTURE FLIGHTS: SpaceX al-
Mars, and have it mak- NASA in the 1960s to be ready has customers lined
up for the Falcon Heavy.
The rocket is designed to
hoist supersize satellites as
well as equipment or peo-
ple to the moon, Mars or
other far-flung points. The
private company's online
flight manifest shows the
U.S. Air Force as already
signed up.q