5 years in the past at present (Feb. 6), SpaceX’s brawny Falcon Heavy rocket left Earth for the primary time ever.
That debut mission, which lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart in Florida, was no atypical take a look at flight. For starters, it topped the Falcon Heavy as essentially the most highly effective rocket on the planet, a title it held until NASA’s Space Launch System flew this past November on the Artemis 1 mission.
The payload was fairly memorable as effectively: The massive new rocket despatched SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk‘s purple Tesla Roadster, with a spacesuit-clad model named Starman within the driver’s seat, into orbit around the sun. (Since this was a take a look at flight, SpaceX did not put an operational satellite on board. However Musk determined to make the dummy payload an attention-grabbing one.)
Starman and his ride are nonetheless cruising by deep space, by the best way. However they’re headed for a violent finish: An orbit-modeling examine discovered that the automotive will ultimately crash into Venus or Earth, in all probability within the subsequent few tens of tens of millions of years.
Associated: SpaceX’s Epic Road Trip Photos: Starman rides a Tesla Roadster in space
Extra: SpaceX’s 1st Falcon Heavy launch in photos
The Falcon Heavy consists of three strapped-together first levels of SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, that are reusable; they’re designed to make vertical landings shortly after liftoff and fly once more after some refurbishment. The Heavy’s central booster is topped by an higher stage, which carries the payload.
The Falcon Heavy’s 27 first-stage Merlin engines generate a whopping 5 million kilos of thrust at liftoff, which permits the large rocket to hold as much as 70.3 tons (63.8 metric tons) of payload to low Earth orbit (LEO) on every mission, based on its SpaceX specifications page (opens in new tab). The Falcon 9, by comparability, can ship about 25.1 tons (22.8 metric tons) to LEO.
The Falcon Heavy now has a total of 5 flights below its belt, all of them profitable. The rocket lofted the Arabsat-6A telecom satellite to orbit in April 2019, then launched a mission for the U.S. Air Drive two months later.
The Heavy was then idle for about 40 months, a spot attributable principally to buyer delays in getting their satellites prepared. In November 2022, the rocket roared again into motion, launching a handful of satellites for the U.S. Space Force. The Heavy flew once more on Jan. 15 of this yr on another Space Force mission — and it seemingly will not be lengthy earlier than we see one other liftoff.
“Falcon Heavy has accomplished 5 launches to this point, and will fly as much as 5 missions this yr,” SpaceX said via Twitter today (opens in new tab).
SpaceX is at present gearing up for the debut of one other large rocket, by the best way, one which can be extra highly effective than any automobile that is ever flown — Starship, which the corporate is creating to take folks and cargo to the moon and Mars.
The most recent Starship prototype aced its first-ever fueling take a look at on Jan. 23, and it may launch to orbit for the primary time as early as next month if remaining checks go effectively, Musk mentioned just lately.
Mike Wall is the writer of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a guide in regards to the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
