Falcon Heavy – Primed for Launch

Launch!

UPDATE – 6 Feb 2018: 

Falcon Heavy has launched! A spectacular lift-off at the backend of the launch window carried Elon Musk’s Tesla sports car into solar orbit, while two of the three boosters successfully landed back at the Cape. The third, central booster ran out of fuel and did not land successfully.

See SpaceX’s pictures of the launch and landings here: SpaceX Flickr.

Falcon Heavy is a heavy-lifting rocket towers 70 metres tall, is two times more powerful than any other rocket today, and for the past few weeks has been poised above the same historic Florida launchpad, Pad 39A, that launched the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon back in 1969. It carries as dummy cargo Elon’s cherry-red Tesla sports car, a quirky publicity stunt that hallmarks this new day of commercial spaceflight.

It’s safe to say that the maiden flight for Falcon Heavy is going to be a big deal. That is of course, if “it doesn’t blow up on ascent”, to quote SpaceX owner Elon Musk.

There’s always a non-zero chance that a rocket can explode during launch, and particularly so with a brand-new rocket. There are countless small things that can go wrong, and at the end of the day, a rocket is basically just a giant tube of fuel that’s set on fire. A big explosion is kind of the point in order to get the whole thing off the ground.

SpaceX is no stranger to explosions, having suffered a major pre-launch explosion of one of its smaller Falcon 9 rockets back in September 2016. But since then, the company has made a remarkable recovery with 18 flawless Falcon 9 launches in 2017.

Falcon Heavy Stats

Now SpaceX is finally debuting its Falcon Heavy rocket, which is essentially three Falcon 9 rockets strapped side by side, giving it twice as much carrying power than any other active rocket in the world. (Active rocket being the key word here – the Saturn V rocket that carried Apollo astronauts to the Moon still dwarfs the Falcon Heavy both in size and power.)

Height: 70 m

Mass: 1.4 million kg

Lifting power to Low Earth Orbit: 63,800 kg

Lifting power to Mars: 16,800 kg

Maiden flight payload: Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster placed in orbit around the Sun

It is this rocket which SpaceX says will slingshot two intrepid space tourists around the Moon by the end of 2018 (no recent updates on that front yet).

The Falcon Heavy will also give SpaceX the power to carry much larger satellites into orbit, and, if all goes well, ferry NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, ending NASA’s seven-year reliance on Russia’s Soyuz rocket.

Flawless Test Fire

The maiden launch of the Falcon Heavy is now imminent. Yesterday, 24 January 2018, after weeks of delays, SpaceX finally conducted a flawless engine burn known as a ‘static fire test’. In this test, the rocket boosters were fully fueled, the 27 Merlin engines ignited in a synchronized stagger, and fired for nearly 12 seconds. The only difference between a static fire test and an actual launch was the fact that the rocket is clamped to the ground so that it can’t move.

Following the successful test fire, Elon Musk tweeted “Falcon Heavy hold-down firing this morning was good. Generated quite a thunderhead of steam. Launching in a week or so.” Current best estimates are for 1-3 February 2018.

A car in endless solar orbit

When the maiden flight does occur, a rather unusual bit of dummy cargo will be tucked into the very top of the Falcon Heavy rocket – Elon Musk’s personal sportscar, a cherry-red Tesla Roadster. It will be placed into a large elliptical orbit around the Sun, reaching out to the distance of Mars!

On some levels, this is a slightly frivolous marketing stunt that has already generated many headlines. We’re certainly in a new era of commercial spaceflight, and publicity is the name of the game to attract contracts and sponsors.

On the other hand, maiden flights rarely carry precious cargo as the risks are too great. Instead maiden rockets carry a dummy payload of no real value, just to prove that the rocket works. So, if you’re Elon Musk and also happen to own the Tesla car company, why not use a car as a payload?

It’s important to say that his Roadster is not actually going to Mars. Instead it will be on a solar orbit that goes out to about the same distance as Mars’ orbit, destined to circle in space forever.