SpaceX Falcon Heavy

Автор Salo, 17.09.2011 16:58:57

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vissarion

ЦитироватьAstro Cat пишет:
vissarion ,Спасибо! Украсть перевод можно? )))
Конечно, я не переводчик и не редактор, небольшая корректура не помешала бы.

tnt22

https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/07/spacex-debuts-worlds-most-powerful-rocket-sends-tesla-toward-the-asteroid-belt/
ЦитироватьSpaceX debuts world's most powerful rocket, sends Tesla toward asteroid belt
February 7, 2018 Stephen Clark


SpaceX's first Falcon Heavy rocket climbs into the sky fr om launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: SpaceX

Rumbling into the sky fr om a historic NASA-owned launch pad, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket — the world's most powerful present-day launcher — flew for the first time Tuesday, dispatching a road-worn electric Tesla sports car with a spacesuit-clad mannequin nicknamed "Starman" on an interplanetary journey toward the asteroid belt.
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Spectacular live video from numerous cameras around the Florida launch base, and on-board the rocket itself, captivated millions of viewers on television and online as the Falcon Heavy climbed into space, then as its two strap-on boosters returned for a dual-landing punctuated by sonic booms.

Once in orbit, the rocket and its cargo — a sleek Tesla Roadster taken from the garage of SpaceX-founder Elon Musk — looped around Earth for nearly six hours, beaming live video of a dummy positioned in the automobile's driver seat, one arm out the window and the other on the steering wheel.

After a long-duration coast, the Falcon Heavy's upper stage engine reignited to give the Tesla and its mannequin passenger enough speed to break away from Earth's gravitational grip, sending the car and its rocket stage into an orbit centered on the sun that will travel as far away as the asteroid belt.

Musk spoke to reporters at the Kennedy Space Center a few hours after liftoff, saying he was thrilled with the outcome of the demonstration mission.

"I didn't really think this would work," Musk said. "When I see the rocket lift off, I see, like, 1,000 things that could not work, and it's amazing when they do."

Despite the Falcon Heavy's use of designs proven on the operational Falcon 9 launcher, Musk voiced concerns about the structural stability of the rocket, an untried booster separation maneuver, and a marathon five-hour coast through the cold vacuum of space by the upper stage.


Elon Musk speaks with reporters after the Falcon Heavy's maiden flight. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

The dramatic test flight took off at 3:45 p.m. EST (2045 GMT) Tuesday from launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the same facility used by the Apollo 11 lunar landing crew and numerous space shuttle missions.

SpaceX pushed back the liftoff more than two hours to wait for better upper level winds, and conditions improved just in time before Tuesday's launch window closed.

The Falcon Heavy's on-board computer sent commands to ignite Merlin engines on two strap-on boosters as the countdown reached T-minus 5 seconds. Two seconds later, the controller ignited the Falcon Heavy's core stage, sending a fiery exhaust plume out of the flame trench at pad 39A.

Hold-down clamps released as the clock ticked to zero, and the behemoth 3.1 million-pound rocket — equivalent to roughly 1,420 metric tons — lumbered away from pad 39A with nearly 5 million pounds of thrust, one-and-a-half times more than any other rocket flying today, and around two-thirds the power output of the space shuttle at liftoff.

Rolling on course east over the Atlantic Ocean, the Falcon Heavy's 27 Merlin main engines sent a window-ratting roar across the Florida launch base as it surpassed the speed of sound and withstood extreme aerodynamic pressures, surviving the buffeting that some engineers worried could tear the rocket apart.

The Falcon Heavy shed its two strap-on boosters and core stage for descents back to Cape Canaveral and to SpaceX's rocket recovery platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

The twin side boosters flipped around with the help of cold-gas nitrogen thrusters, then reignited a subset of their engines to return to Cape Canaveral, wh ere they descended to pinpoint landings on two adjacent concrete pads a few miles south of the Falcon Heavy's launch complex.

The rockets plummeted toward the ground, then fired one engine each to slow their fall moments before landing, touching down seconds apart as a sudden quadruple sonic boom crackled across the sprawling, swampy spaceport.

"The side boosters, if you guys were here, you saw them land," Musk said. "That was epic. That's probably the most exciting thing I've ever seen."


The Falcon Heavy's twin side boosters touch down at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The center core stage was lost during a landing attempt at sea. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX tried to recover the Falcon Heavy's center core on a platform positioned a few hundred miles downrange in the Atlantic Ocean, but that maneuver did not go as well.

The rocket's core stage apparently ran out of igniter fluid, Musk said, and it crashed into the sea a short distance from the uncrewed drone ship, taking out two of the vessel's engines and showering its deck with debris.

But that was the only hiccup SpaceX said occurred on Tuesday's test flight.

SpaceX's live webcast — set to the tune of David Bowie's "Life on Mars" and the second most-watched live stream in YouTube history — ended around 10 minutes after liftoff, but the company quickly started another video feed that showed the Tesla sports car drifting in space, with planet Earth receding into the blackness of space.

Several camera angles broadcast resplendent views of Earth's blue marble through the car's windshield, with the planet occasionally reflected off the Roadster's cherry red paint scheme and the darkened visor of Starman's helmet.

The mannequin wore a spacesuit developed by SpaceX for future astronaut crews. The company is working on a human-rated capsule that could take NASA astronauts to the International Space Station by the end of this year, or in early 2019.

Unaccompanied by commentary or music, the video of Starman conjured many comparisons to iconic science fiction and space opera productions, drawing attention from entertainers, politicians and the public.

Musk announced the Falcon Heavy's cargo in December, capitalizing on an opportunity for cross-brand marketing between SpaceX and Tesla, his two primary companies.

"You can tell it's real because it looks so fake," Musk said of the video. "We'd have way better CGI if it was fake.

"The colors all look kind of weird in space," he said. "There's no atmospheric occlusion. Everything looks too crisp. We didn't really test of any those materials (on the car). Is it space-hardened or whatever? It just has the same seats that a normal car has. It's literally a normal car in space, which I kind of like the absurdity of that."


"Starman" soars over Australia a few hours after the Falcon Heavy's launch from Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX

Musk opted for the Roadster's launch instead of putting ballast or an experimental craft on the first Falcon Heavy.

"It's silly and fun, but I think silly, fun things are important," he said. "Normally, for a new rocket, they'd launch like a block of concrete, or something like that. That's so boring. I think the imagery of it is something that's going to get people excited around the world. It's still tripping me out."

SpaceX ground crews also placed a Hot Wheels model Roadster on the car's dash, with a mini-Starman inside. An "Arch" data storage device placed inside the car contains a copy of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" novels, and a plaque on the attach fitting between the Falcon Heavy upper stage and the Tesla is etched with the names of more than 6,000 SpaceX employees.

Two firings of the upper stage's single engine sent the Tesla into an elliptical orbit stretching more than 4,300 miles (6,900 kilometers) from Earth before shutting down for a nearly six-hour coast, twice as long as any past Falcon 9 rocket flight.

The rocket arced through the Van Allen radiation belts before reigniting its engine to give it an extra boost with enough speed to escape Earth orbit and head into the solar system.

Long-duration upper stage flight profiles are required for the most demanding U.S. military launch missions, such as the placement of satellites directly into geostationary orbit, a circular perch more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator. Multiple, perfectly-timed engine burns are needed to move from an initial low-altitude inclined parking orbit into such a high-altitude equatorial position.

The lengthy upper stage flight Tuesday demonstrated the Falcon rocket family's capability to pull off such a feat, showcasing the performance to the Air Force and other prospective customers.

Musk said before Tuesday's launch that the upper stage carried additional battery power and pressurant gas for the extra operating time in space.

The final upper stage maneuver was expected to deplete the rocket's kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants.

Multiple visual reports from Southern California suggested the Falcon Heavy's upper stage, the Tesla Roadster and Starman likely completed its Earth departure maneuver around 9:30 p.m. EST (6:30 p.m. PST; 0230 GMT).

The sightings shared via social media and by Spaceflight Now readers indicated the rocket flew across the southern sky as viewed from the Los Angeles area. That is in line with the expected track of the upper stage.

One reader told Spaceflight Now the object looked like a comet as it appeared in the south-southeast sky in Los Angeles, at an elevation of about 25 degrees above the horizon. The object was moving to the east-southeast.

Another reader described seeing multiple "puffs" from the object as it traversed the sky.

An all-sky camera at the MMT Observatory on a mountaintop in southern Arizona also recorded the Falcon Heavy's upper stage as it left Earth orbit.
Цитироватьhttps://video.twimg.com/tweet_video/DVZxLLHU0AA1dYo.mp4
(Video 0:03)

Timothy Pickering‏ @te_pickering 13h ago

the #spacex solar orbit insertion burn as seen from @mmtobservatory...
Musk confirmed on Twitter late Tuesday night that the third upper stage firing pushed the Tesla and Starman on a trajectory that will take them past the orbit of Mars, and into the asteroid belt, on each lap around the sun.

"Third burn successful," he tweeted. "Exceeded Mars orbit and kept going to the asteroid belt."

Tuesday's demo launch marked the first time a rocket of the Falcon Heavy's power has flown since the last space shuttle mission in 2011. It's the most capable rocket since the Saturn 5 moon rocket, which hurled Apollo crews to the moon.

"The great thing is that the Falcon Heavy opens up a new class of payload," Musk said. "It can launch more than twice as much payload as any other rocket in the world, so it's kind of up to customers what they might want to launch.

"But it can launch things direct to Pluto and beyond. No stop needed. You don't even need a gravity assist or anything," he said. "It can launch giant satellites. It can do anything you want. You could send people back to the moon if you did a bunch of launches with Falcon Heavy and did an orbital refilling. Two or three Falcon Heavys would equal the payload of a Saturn 5."

But SpaceX has no plans to launch astronauts on the Falcon Heavy — NASA crews to the space station will fly on the smaller Falcon 9 — and Musk already has a much bigger booster in development to support interplanetary trips with people.

The towering Falcon Heavy measures 229 feet (70 meters) tall and 40 feet (12 meters) abreast. It's not the biggest rocket in the world — rival United Launch Alliance's Delta 4-Heavy is taller and wider — but the Falcon Heavy's 27 main engines pack a heavier punch.

The Tesla Roadster's mass — it weighed around 2,760 pounds (1,250 kilograms) on the street — fell well under the Falcon Heavy's capacity, and would not stress the lift capability of SpaceX's smaller, single-core Falcon 9 rocket or Atlas, Delta and Ariane boosters operated by rivals United Launch Alliance and Arianespace.

The iconography surrounding Tuesday's test launch was hard to miss, but the star of the show was the Falcon Heavy itself.


A view of the Falcon Heavy's 27 main engines before launch. Credit: SpaceX

Comprised of three rocket booster cores derived from SpaceX's operational Falcon 9 rocket, plus a single-engine upper stage, the Falcon Heavy can generate 5.1 million pounds of thrust in future configurations. On Tuesday's demo flight, the average thrust from the Falcon Heavy's 27 kerosene-fueled Merlin 1D engines was expected to be throttled back to 92 percent power, equivalent to roughly 4.7 million pounds, Musk said.

That surpasses the European Ariane 5 launcher, the world's previous operational leader in liftoff power at 2.9 million pound of thrust from two segmented solid rocket boosters and a core engine. SpaceX's new rocket produced more thrust than any launch vehicle since the space shuttle, and its power at liftoff — approximately the same thrust as 18 Boeing 747 jumbo jets — came in fourth among rockets all time, after the Soviet Union's N1 moon rocket, which never had a successful flight in four attempts, NASA's Saturn 5 launcher that carried astronauts to the moon, Russia's 1980s-era Energia rocket and the space shuttle.

The Falcon Heavy is also able to carry more payload into orbit than any other rocket in the world — and the most by any launcher since the Saturn 5 — a more important measure of the rocket's lifting capacity.

The Delta 4-Heavy rocket, the most capable rocket in service outside the Falcon Heavy in terms of lift capacity, can haul up to 62,540 pounds (28,370 kilograms) to a low-altitude orbit approximately 120 miles (200 kilometers) above Earth when launched to the east from Cape Canaveral, according to a launch vehicle data sheet published by ULA.

NASA's planned Space Launch System, set for a maiden flight in late 2019 or early 2020, will carry more than 154,000 pounds (70,000 kilograms) to low Earth orbit and produce a maximum thrust of 8.8 million pounds. A souped-up model of the SLS with an enlarged upper stage launching in the early 2020s could haul more than 230,000 pounds (105 metric tons) to low Earth orbit.

The SLS is being designed with surplus space shuttle engine and booster components, and the space agency intends to use the multibillion-dollar mega-rocket to send astronaut crews to the moon, and eventually beyond.

If its first stage boosters are not recovered, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy is capable of delivering up to 140,660 pounds (63,800 kilograms) to low Earth orbit when launched to the east from Florida's Space Coast, wh ere rockets get a velocity boost from Earth's rotation.

But SpaceX intends to land and reuse at least two — and usually all three — of the first stage boosters on every Falcon Heavy, eating into the rocket's propellant reserves and reducing the weight it can loft into orbit.

The rocket stages on Tuesday's launch will not be reused, Musk said.

The lift performance outlined on SpaceX's website also assumes the introduction of upgraded rocket stages on future Falcon Heavy flights. The "Block 5" version of the Falcon 9 rocket is expected to debut "in a couple of months," Musk said, and the uprated boosters will fly on the next Falcon Heavy test launch later this year, likely a rideshare mission with multiple satellites for the U.S. military, NASA and research institutions.

A Falcon Heavy rocket flight sells commercially for around $90 million, while a Falcon 9 goes for around $60 million, according to SpaceX's website. But a Falcon Heavy mission for NASA or the U.S. military, which levy additional requirements on their launch providers, is expected to go for $150 million or more.

A mission using ULA's Delta 4-Heavy rocket costs at least twice that. A Delta 4-Heavy launch contract for NASA's Parker Solar Probe awarded in 2015 was valued at $389 million.

Musk said SpaceX spent more than $500 million developing the Falcon Heavy, roughly one-quarter of the budget NASA has committed to the Space Launch System's development and construction just this year.

"Being able to reuse those rocket booster cores means the expendable portion of a Falcon Heavy flight is the same as a Falcon 9 flight," Musk said. "On Falcon 9, we expend the upper stage ... We're getting better and better at recovering the fairing, so we expect to recover the fairing and the booster — the first stage — of Falcon 9, so only the second stage will be expended."

"For Falcon Heavy, it's the same amount that we're expending, just the upper stage. It means we're able to offer heavy — nearing super heavy-lift capability — for not much more than the cost of a Falcon 9," Musk said. "If we're successful, it will be game over for other heavy-lift rockets."

Tuesday's success was not assured. Musk predicted the Falcon Heavy's first flight had a 50 to 70 percent chance of success.

"There's so much that can go wrong here," Musk told CBS News before Tuesday's test flight. "There are a lot of experts out there saying there's no way you can do 27 engines, all at the same time, and not have something go wrong.

"You've got the booster-to-booster interaction, acoustics and vibration that haven't been seen from any man-made device in a long time," Musk said.

The Soviet-era N1 rocket sported 30 engines, but Russian engineers had trouble getting all of the powerplants to work in unison. Engine vibrations, turbopump failures and fuel leaks led to four failed launch attempts.

By comparison, the Saturn 5 had five larger first stage engines.

Musk unveiled the Falcon Heavy rocket in 2011, and proclaimed then the launcher would be ready for blastoff in 2013. SpaceX said it slowed development of the Falcon Heavy to focus on other projects, including the recovery of Falcon 9 rocket stages for reuse, and to resolve technical problems that destroyed two Falcon 9 rockets in 2015 and 2016, one in flight and another on the launch pad.

Musk announced in September his updated vision for settling Mars — SpaceX's ultimate mission — and announced that his company is working on a giant new rocket dubbed the BFR that could send cargo and crew ships to the red planet, or perhaps the moon if a lunar base becomes reality.

SpaceX developed the Falcon Heavy to lift heavier payloads into space than the company's Falcon 9 rocket, and to compete with other heavy-lifters for contracts to haul massive spacecraft for the U.S. military and NASA. The Falcon Heavy may also find a niche in deploying large commercial satellites, or launching clusters of smaller spacecraft to support the build-out of planned broadband communications networks.

SpaceX officials hope many more missions come to the Falcon Heavy with Tuesday's successful flight.

The Air Force's heaviest satellites are too big to loft on the Falcon 9 rocket, leaving ULA's Delta 4-Heavy as the sole option for those missions. But the Air Force could certify the Falcon Heavy to carry its most expensive and sensitive payloads once the new rocket makes three successful flights, making it eligible to compete for lucrative contracts that can now only go to the Delta 4-Heavy.

The Air Force's launch officials certified the Falcon 9 for military missions in 2015. Since then, SpaceX has won contracts to deliver two Air Force GPS navigation satellites to orbit.

Musk said "a number of commercial customers" have signed up for Falcon Heavy launches.

"We'll be doing several Falcon Heavy missions per year," he said. "So let's say there's a big national security satellite that's due for launch in three or four years. We'll probably have a dozen or more launches done by then ... I don't think there be a launch number that's going to inhibit our national security stuff."

But going into Tuesday's demo flight, only three more Falcon Heavy missions were confirmed in SpaceX's backlog: Two for commercial telecom companies Arabsat and ViaSat, and one as a test flight for the Air Force codenamed STP-2. Another company, Inmarsat, has an option to launch a future satellite on a Falcon Heavy.
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tnt22

http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-heavy-launches-on-inaugural-flight/
ЦитироватьSuccessful Falcon Heavy Test Flight: "Starman" Reaches Orbit, 2/3 Rocket Cores Recovered
February 7, 2018


Photo: SpaceX
The stakes were high for SpaceX on Tuesday when their triple-core monster rocket leapt off fr om Florida's Space Coast on an ambitious shakedown mission that held many unknowns for the California-based company.
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Many had thought it impossible just a few short years ago, but SpaceX again beat the odds – even to the surprise of company leader Elon Musk – by successfully sending Falcon Heavy off into orbit and recovering two of its main boost stages in science-fiction-like fashion by flying them back to the Cape in near-simultaneous acrobatics.

Although SpaceX engineers spent countless hours poring over simulations to ensure Falcon Heavy would have the best possible chance at a successful debut, a number of open questions remained when the 1,420-metric-ton beast rumbled off its storied Kennedy Space Center launch pad.  A tripling of acoustics and vibration over the Falcon 9, the potential of unforeseen dynamics between the three booster cores and their 27 engines, ice falling off the rocket's second stage and punching holes in the side booster nose cones and the unknowns coming with separating two massive cores fr om the still-firing central stage were serious concerns when Falcon Heavy embarked on its long-delayed maiden flight.


Photo: SpaceX
The roar of 27 Merlin engines engulfed Cape Canaveral at 20:45 UTC on Tuesday, 3:45 p.m. local time and many had descended onto the Space Coast to witness SpaceX take another major step on the company's path to exploration and colonization of the solar system. The ground shook as Falcon Heavy officially became the most-powerful rocket in operation when rising from its historic launch pad that saw off all Apollo flights to the lunar surface and the majority of Space Shuttle missions.

Rising into clear skies, the 70-meter tall Falcon Heavy departed Cape Canaveral straight east to begin a complex mission profile eventually leading up to an Earth Departure Maneuver early Wednesday morning UTC to send its payload into deep space – a midnight-cherry Tesla Roadster from Musk's personal collection, now 'driven' by a mannequin dressed in a SpaceX Space Suit, aiming for an elliptical orbit around the sun venturing out as far as the orbit of Mars, some 400 million Kilometers from Earth.


Starman Orbits the Earth – Photo: SpaceX Webcast
The first sigh of relief was breathed by the SpaceX workforce when Falcon Heavy passed the point of maximum stress on the used airframes of its flight-proven boosters and the reinforced central core. The twin boosters successfully departed the vehicle two and a half minutes after launch and went through near-simultaneous boost-back maneuvers to power back toward Cape Canaveral and land just 300 meters from one another in SpaceX's Landing Zones 1 & 2 after an eight-minute round trip to the edge of space.

At the same time, around 350 Kilometers from shore, the 47-meter tall central core was on its final approach to SpaceX's Drone Ship after separating from the climbing rocket at the three-minute mark into the flight, handing off to the second stage for the boost into orbit. SpaceX was only able to 2-for-3 in rocket landings on Tuesday as the Center Core crashed into the Ocean after running out of igniter fluid for its three-engine landing burn – only a little tarnish on an otherwise spectacularly successful day.


Photo: SpaceX Webcast
After the incredibly fast pace of first stage flight and having four separate free-flying Falcon Heavy stages heading toward their destination points, it was up to the rocket's second stage to finish the job of pushing "Starman" and its Tesla into solar orbit. The MVac-powered stage completed an initial five-and-a-half-minute burn into a Low Earth Orbit and a thirty-second re-light over Sub-Saharan Africa pushed the stack into an elliptical orbit wh ere it was to complete two laps around Earth before the experimental departure maneuver to head off into Deep Space.

This engine burn aims to accomplish two objectives at once: 1) sending the Tesla off into its solar orbit in one of the most elaborate cross-brand marketing campaigns ever and, 2) qualify the Falcon Heavy & Falcon 9 second stage for long-coast missions like direct Geostationary Injections to allow the vehicles to compete for Department of Defence missions. Confirmation of successful Earth departure of the electric sports car will come directly through SpaceX after the maneuver is completed in the wee hours UTC on Wednesday.


Falcon Heavy's Inaugural Payload – Photo: SpaceX
As the payload for Falcon Heavy's high-risk mission, Musk picked one of his used Tesla Roadsters to shoot off into the Solar System instead of opting for the "boring" dummy payloads like concrete or metal boilerplates that were part of the maiden flights of vehicles preceding SpaceX. To add to the fun in true SpaceX style, the company placed a mannequin wearing a space-qualified SpaceX suit in the car's driver's seat, one arm on the wheel, the other hanging out the window.

Named "Starman" in homage to the famous 1972 David Bowie song, the figure traveled into the cosmos while Bowie's "Space Oddity" was playing on the radio and the car's glove compartment contained a copy of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and a towel saying 'Don't Panic'.

"I love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future," Musk Tweeted in December.

Accelerating the 1,300-Kilogram sports car to a top speed of 11 Kilometers per second did not come close to exhausting Falcon Heavy's potential performance, allowing for all three boosters to be returned to Earth intact and the second stage to perform a less-than-optimal flight trajectory to facilitate the long coast test. The car's final orbit had been set up to precess between Earth and Mars without interfering with Earth's neighboring planet for hundreds of millions of years to come in order to comply with planetary protection guidelines.


Photo: SpaceX
The maiden launch of Falcon Heavy was widely regarded as one of the most-anticipated spaceflight events of 2018 and many traveled to the Kennedy Space Center to witness the powerful rocket take to the skies and watch the side boosters descend toward their near-simultaneous landing, in the process sending a pair of dual sonic booms across the Space Coast.

Popular viewing locations like Jetty Park were reported at capacity over three hours before the opening of the rocket's launch window and Kennedy's press site was buzzing like it last did for the Shuttle's final launches in 2010 and 2011. Weather was fair for an afternoon of launch watching with temperatures of 24°C, mostly clear skies and calm winds – also creating very favorable conditions for Falcon Heavy to get off the pad – barring any technical gremlins that usually come up when new rockets are involved.

With the massive launch vehicle assembled in December, SpaceX went through a series of Wet Dress Rehearsals in January, culminating in a successful Static Fire Test on the 24th that delivered a wealth of data on the performance of the 27 Merlin engines and the structural interplay of the three cores. The tanking tests and Static Fire were also designed to iron out any teething issues with the launch vehicle and the revamped ground system at LC-39A in a bid to avoid surprises on the technical side come launch day,


Photo: SpaceX Webcast
Towering above Launch Complex 39A, Falcon Heavy entered a lengthy countdown operation Tuesday morning when power was applied to the vehicle for a methodical checkout campaign – giving Launch Controllers plenty of work as four sets of avionics had to be checked out and configured for flight. No issues were reported from the vehicle side and the launch pad was cleared two hours before the opening of the day's two-and-a-half-hour launch window.

However, liftoff had to be pushed over two hours into the day's 2.5-hour window to wait for sporty winds aloft to calm down and create a more benign flight environment for the untried rocket. Balloon data showed the favorable trend for upper level winds and teams at two Launch Control Rooms at the Cape and engineering support at SpaceX HQ in Hawthorne provided a unanimous GO to allow the countdown to be handed over to computers for the 85-minute automated countdown sequence facilitating the complex tanking operation to load the vehicle with over 1,300 metric tons of rocket-grade Kerosene and Liquid Oxygen.

Tanking was by the book, starting with loading the three cores and upper stage with over 400 metric tons of Rocket Propellant 1, chilled to -7°C, before the sub-cooled LOX at -207°C was pumped into the rocket in rapid fashion as over 935 metric tons had to be loaded as close to T-0 as possible to ensure the maximum possible performance was available. Propellant loading closed out in the last three minutes of the countdown by which point the Falcon Heavy had completed final exercises of its propellant trim valves, switched to internal power, armed its destruct system and was disconnected from its supporting Strongback.


Photo: SpaceX
Falcon Heavy's triple-redundant flight computers assumed control of the countdown at the one-minute mark and the Launch Director declared a final GO just inside T-30 seconds. Ignition of Falcon Heavy's 27 Merlin 1D main engines was commanded at T-5 seconds, lighting them in pairwise fashion to prevent thrust torques from building up and ripping the vehicle apart right on the pad – one of the biggest fears for SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk who stated multiple times that getting the vehicle off the pad "would be a win."

And off the pad it went – Liftoff occurred at 20:45:00.49 UTC and Falcon Heavy ascended vertically to clear the 106-meter tall Fixed Service Structure left behind from the Space Shuttle with a total thrust of 2,140 metric-ton-force. Although the most powerful rocket in service today – both in terms of launch thrust and lift capability – Falcon Heavy is only the third-most-powerful rocket to launch from Kennedy's LC-39A after the mighty Saturn V and the Space Shuttle with its Solid Rocket Booster assistance.


Photo: SpaceX Webcast
Spreading its wings, Falcon Heavy completed its pitch and roll maneuvers into a knife-edge orientation, burning over seven metric tons of propellant every second of powered flight between the three cores. Launch Controllers called out Mach 1 at one minute and seven seconds into the mission and Falcon Heavy throttled back on all three of its cores as it passed Maximum Dynamic Pressure at 82 seconds into the flight.

Falcon Heavy braved the stress encountered at MaxQ and the two Side Boosters throttled back up to full thrust while the Center Core remained in partial thrust mode to save propellants for later on. The twin boosters throttled down from T+2:10 until shutting down their Merlin engines two minutes and 30 seconds into the flight after helping Falcon Heavy accelerate to 1.9 Kilometers per second.


Booster Separation – Photo: SpaceX Webcast

Three Cores going on Separate Ways – Photo: SpaceX Webcast
BECO was called out by the launch team and was followed by one of the most critical moments of Falcon Heavy's shakedown flight as the separation systems of the boosters could not be fully tested on the ground and concerns had lingered that there was a possibility of re-contact after separation. Onboard video from the Central Core and the two side-mounted boosters showed them falling away from the core at an altitude of 61 Kilometers with each departing booster receiving a slight blasting from the core's engine exhaust.

Relying on their Nitrogen thrusters, the two boosters entered their acrobatic tour de force with a swift flip maneuver to point their engines toward the direction of travel and not waste precious time as every second carried them further away from the Space Coast. They each fired up three engines in staggered fashion at T+2 minutes and 50 seconds on a long boost back maneuver of one minute and 25 seconds.

MECO – Main Engine Cutoff on the Center Core was confirmed three minutes and 5 seconds into the flight after it boosted the vehicle to an altitude of 86 Kilometers and a velocity of 2.65 Kilometers per second. The two stages parted ways five seconds later via four pneumatic pushers with the second stage immediately heading into start-up mode and the Central Core using its interstage thrusters to flip around for its partial boostback maneuver of nearly one minute, starting at T+3:26 to slow the booster for a more manageable re-entry and to lim it its downrange travel distance from the Cape. Booster 1033 was aiming for the Drone Ship 'Of Course I Still Love You' holding position 345 Kilometers from the launch pad – set for SpaceX's 14th recovery attempt at sea, the first since last October.


Two Falcons Land Simultaneously – Photo: SpaceX Webcast

Photo: Elon Musk Instagram
For the two Side Boosters, flight continued in synchronized fashion, deploying their grid fins at the five-minute mark, passing the high point of their trajectory and falling back toward the dense atmosphere for a 14-second re-entry burn starting at T+6 minutes and 35 seconds. Some 300 Kilometers downrange, the Center Core initiated its Entry Burn at T+6:54 and fired three engines for 20 seconds to create a survivable entry environment.

Coming back in, the Side Boosters reversed through the sound barrier and fired up at T+7 minutes and 49 seconds on their landing burns – at least one of them performed a three-engine landing maneuver: firing up the center engine and two outer engines joined in for around five seconds to rapidly decelerate before the final descent was completed powered by the center engine alone. The two boosters came to a near-simultaneous landing at T+8 minutes and 6 seconds, each managing a bullseye touchdown in their respective Landing Zone to overwhelming cheers from a large crowd gathered at SpaceX headquarters.

While the two Falcons successfully touched down in Florida, their B1033 colleague was still in mid-air and fast approaching its landing spot in the Atlantic Ocean. The Launch Team called out 'Landing Burn Start-Up' at T+8 minutes and 24 seconds and B1033 was also set for the more-efficient but higher-risk three-engine burn to cut propellant consumption. A call at T+8:36 announced "We've lost the center core!" and SpaceX's Elon Musk later confirmed the center met its fate when crashing into the Atlantic at over 400 Kilometers per hour because it failed to re-light two of its engines when it ran out of TEA-TEB igniter fluid.

SpaceX did not plan on re-using any of the boosters in play on Tuesday: the two side cores had already flown as individual Falcon 9 rockets in 2016 helping lift a Thaicom communications satellite and a Dragon cargo ship, and the 1033 Core Stage also was of a previous Falcon generation. As the company rolls out Falcon 9 Block 5 in the coming months, Falcon Heavy will also transition to "Block 5" stages that host a number of improvements to enable rapid and cost-effective re-flight missions.

The rocket's second stage – tasked with its lengthy demonstration mission, successfully dropped the 13.1-meter long fairing halves just shy of four minutes into the flight and three cameras rigged on and around the Roadster began providing views of the Starman blazing toward orbit. Shutdown on the second stage was called eight minutes and 35 seconds after launch and its orbital parameters were confirmed nominal as the vehicle began its multi-hour mission.


Starman after Fairing Separation – Photo: SpaceX Webcast
A second burn executed at T+28.5 minutes fired the MVac engine for 30 seconds to accelerate the stack into an elliptical transfer orbit of 180 by 6,951 Kilometers, 29° for two orbits of coasting around Earth to demonstrate a typical 5.5-hour coast phase needed in a direct flight to Geostationary Orbit. SpaceX provided live views of the Roadster and Starman for the majority of the vehicle's trek around the planet, showing Earth visibly shrink in size as the vehicle reached the high point of its orbit.

For Tuesday's mission, the second stage was fitted with additional batteries and loaded with more Nitrogen attitude control system propellant to support the lengthy coast duration and the required attitude maneuvers for thermal control and propellant settling. The Earth Departure Maneuver by the second stage is expected around 3 UTC to increase Tesla's top speed to 11 Kilometers per second and send the combined stack into a Heliocentric Orbit venturing out just beyond the orbit of Mars.


Image: SpaceX
Also traveling alongside the Tesla is a commemorative plate with over 6,000 employee names from SpaceX and an "Arch" 5D, laser-optical quartz storage device meant to survive the harsh conditions of space over millions of years. Built by the Arch Mission Foundation, the device contains Isaac Asimov's Foundation book series and is launched under the greater goal of preserving libraries of human knowledge, in part inspired by Asimov's novels themselves.

For Falcon Heavy, Tuesday's milestone launch marked only the beginning, now ready to carry non-novelty payloads into space and currently planning two more launches in 2018 with the Air Force Space Test Program Flight 2 carrying as many as 20 satellites and targeting a tentative launch date in June and the Arabsat 6A communications satellite marking the rocket's first Geotransfer mission.

With Falcon 9 Block 5 – the final iteration of the workhorse launcher – almost ready for its debut, Dragon 2 in a final design & testing phase and Falcon Heavy lifting off the drawing board, SpaceX is now free to focus all its development resources on the BFR – Big Falcon Rocket, the company's ultimate vehicle for human colonization of our neighborhood in the Solar System. Elon Musk – as always optimistic when it comes to schedules – noted initial short-hop missions of an Interplanetary Spaceship prototype could start as early as next year and orbital test flights of the vehicle may only be three or four years out.
[свернуть]

Alex-DX

Вот это странно 
ЦитироватьМаск. У нас нет планов. Батареи хватит на 12 часов.
Тесла ведь электромобиль и основная масса которой это батарея  8)

Дмитрий В.

Цитироватьvissarion пишет:
мой перевод https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sytrrdOPYzA 
Весьма информативно. Спасибо!
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StarShip - аналоговнет!

Старый

ЦитироватьМаск сказал о рестарте к Марсу: Достаточно топлива чтобы выполнить последний импульс, если топливо не замёрзнет, кислород не вскипит, а электроника не сгорит.
Кто мне говорил что каркать нехорошо?  :evil:
1. Ангара - единственная в мире новая РН которая хуже старой (с) Старый Ламер
2. Назначение Роскосмоса - не летать в космос а выкачивать из бюджета деньги
3. У Маска ракета длиннее и толще чем у Роскосмоса
4. Чем мрачнее реальность тем ярче бред (с) Старый Ламер

Старый

Цитироватьvissarion пишет:
ЦитироватьAstro Cat пишет:
vissarion ,Спасибо! Украсть перевод можно? )))
Конечно, я не переводчик и не редактор, небольшая корректура не помешала бы.
Боковины по русски называются боковушками. А так нормально.:)
1. Ангара - единственная в мире новая РН которая хуже старой (с) Старый Ламер
2. Назначение Роскосмоса - не летать в космос а выкачивать из бюджета деньги
3. У Маска ракета длиннее и толще чем у Роскосмоса
4. Чем мрачнее реальность тем ярче бред (с) Старый Ламер

N.A.

#4147
ЦитироватьДмитрий В. пишет:
ЦитироватьШтуцер пишет:
Лет через десять начнется компания "Тесла не была в космосе".
Почему же через десять? Ужо!
 http://free-inform.ru/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=22&p=158834#p158834
Угу. Велюров каким был, таким и остался.   :)  

А вот эффекта от PIFS а-ля "горящая задница S-V" Маск имхо уже практически добился:

Если в дальнейшем будет на этом участке общую тягу увеличивать - эффект будет походу еще хуже сильнее.

ЗЫ. https://youtu.be/59pY74ZhQ50?t=110

Not

ЦитироватьAlex-DX пишет:
Вот это странно
ЦитироватьМаск. У нас нет планов. Батареи хватит на 12 часов.
Тесла ведь электромобиль и основная масса которой это батарея  8)
Батарея, да не та, что в условиях открытого космического пространства работает. А посему вытащили они из автомобильчика все что можно, включая батарею., поставили увеличенную батарейку космического исполнения во вторую ступень, тут и сказочке конец.  :) Кстати говоря, даже облегчение родстера не помогло, по последним данным не достигли они пояса астероидов, как Маск втирал. Вторая ступень отработала до отсечки, орбита получилось чуть дальше Марса.

N.A.

ЦитироватьNot опять ноет:

тут и сказочке конец.


Alex_II

ЦитироватьСтарый пишет:
Кто мне говорил что каркать нехорошо?
Ну так это же можно и Маску сказать... Впрочем  он поди не в курсе местных суеверий...
И мы пошли за так, на четвертак, за ради бога
В обход и напролом и просто пылью по лучу...

Not

#4151
ЦитироватьN.A. пишет:
ЦитироватьNot опять ноет:


Ноете тут вы. Я лишь констатировал факт, что обещанный вояж к поясу астероидов не сросся, что в общем не умаляет заслуг Спейсекса

И, я в отличие от вас хожу сюда в одном лице. Ваша же массовка на редкость бездарна  ;)

Alex_II

ЦитироватьNot пишет:
Ваша же массовка на редкость бездарна
Ну ты у нас на диво даровит чушь нести... Про страшный ветер мы тут долго помнить будем...
И мы пошли за так, на четвертак, за ради бога
В обход и напролом и просто пылью по лучу...

Бампер

Vissarion, СПАСИБО за интервью!

Штуцер

ЦитироватьСтарый пишет:
А Батут по поводу сабжа что-нибудь сказал?
Но в виде обломков различных ракет
Останутся наши следы!

N.A.

ЦитироватьNot продолжает истерить:
Ноете тут вы. Я лишь констатировал факт, что обещанный вояж к поясу астероидов не сросся...
бред поскипан


Наиль

Vissarion, спасибо огромное за интервью!

Хоть тут и офтопик, но зацепили слова Маска о том, что он делает БФР без идей насчет его нагрузки. 
Т.е. делает за свои деньги игрушку, на которую нет коммерческого спроса. 
Это не мечты на словах, это вложенные деньги уже.  Т.е. на самом деле что ли терраформировать Марс хочет????

Alex_II

ЦитироватьNail пишет:
Т.е. делает за свои деньги игрушку, на которую нет коммерческого спроса.
Я так понимаю, он собирается создавать спрос... Хочет чтоб наши (землян) желания офигели от наших возможностей... Почему бы, в конце концов и не терраформировать Марс, если это будет возможно?
И мы пошли за так, на четвертак, за ради бога
В обход и напролом и просто пылью по лучу...

Not

ЦитироватьAlex_II пишет:
ЦитироватьNot пишет:
Ваша же массовка на редкость бездарна
Ну ты у нас на диво даровит чушь нести...
А причем тут ты, дружок? Или ты тоже в деле?

Дмитрий В.

ЦитироватьNail пишет:
Vissarion, спасибо огромное за интервью!

Хоть тут и офтопик, но зацепили слова Маска о том, что он делает БФР без идей насчет его нагрузки.
Т.е. делает за свои деньги игрушку, на которую нет коммерческого спроса.
Это не мечты на словах, это вложенные деньги уже. Т.е. на самом деле что ли терраформировать Марс хочет????
Он хочет зарабатывать на транспортных услугах. Но чтобы в них появилась потребность, кто-то должен терраформировать Марс. ;)
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StarShip - аналоговнет!