They did it: On Tuesday, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon Heavy — and managed to land, in spectacular fashion,…
They did it: On Tuesday, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon Heavy — and managed to land, in spectacular fashion, at least two of its three booster rockets.
In so doing, it pushed the envelope for human space travel, paving the way for larger payloads and more distant journeys into the unknown. Kudos to Musk and his company.
The Falcon Heavy is SpaceX’s super-sized version of its bread-and-butter Falcon 9 rocket, which has been running missions for years. The new vehicle stands 23 stories tall and is equipped with a mind-blowing 27 engines.
But its size and awesome power (it can lift 140,000 pounds to low-Earth orbit and its thrust equals that of 18 Boeing 747 jetliners) aren’t the only remarkable things about it: The fact that its boosters can land undamaged on Earth means they can be re-used, lowering their cost per flight markedly.
Indeed, at $90 million a pop, flying the Falcon Heavy is less than one-tenth the cost of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket.
But the Falcon Heavy’s largely successful flight (its one hitch was that the center booster missed its mark on landing and crashed in the ocean) is a true testament to human ingenuity and perseverance — and, not least, the potential of private enterprise.
Musk added a bit of levity to the rocket’s maiden flight: Its payload was a red Roadster electric sports car, built by Tesla, his other company, with a dummy astronaut wearing one of SpaceX’s spacesuits. The car and its driver are now headed for an elliptical orbit around the sun that will take them past Mars, Musk’s ultimate destination.
The quirky entrepreneur is also hoping his Falcon Heavy and other space-related projects will ignite “a new space war,” which could lead to new breakthroughs.
Besides, he says, “races are exciting.” Indeed they are — especially when they’re in outer space. On your mark, get set…
