VIdeo - A thrust equal to 18 Boeing 747s, success for the launch of the SpaceX heavy-lift rocket

   

A red Tesla sports car is now headed for an orbit adjacent to Mars by the world's most powerful operational rocket, the Falcon Heavy, launched yesterday.

Elon Musk of SpaceX and founder of Tesla, tweeted about seven hours after takeoff: "the orbit of Mars has been exceeded, the rocket continues to go towards the asteroid belt".

Falcon Heavy was launched at 15:45 PM EST (2145 GMT) from Kennedy Space Center, where US space agency NASA launched a rocket that sent astronauts to the moon in 1969.

The two side components of the rocket simultaneously landed on the ground eight minutes after take-off, causing cheers and cheers among the 10.000 spectators present.

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy is essentially composed of three of the Falcon 9 rockets. With a total of 27 Merlin engines, it is capable of generating "over 5 million pounds (2,3 million kg) of take-off thrust, equal to the of about eighteen Boeing 747 type aircraft ”.

Musk said in a post-launch press conference that it looked "so ridiculous and impossible, and you can tell it's real because it looks so fake." “It can be said that it is real because in its madness it makes us see the colors of space”. Tusk also tweeted a live view of the dummy driver that was installed in the seat of the car looking out at our blue planet he left forever.

In front of him a screen said "Don't Panic". On the car circuit was printed "Made on Earth by Humans". According to Musk, the car will arrive about 400 million km from Earth and if it goes as planned it will run at 11 km per second. "The mission went as well as he imagined," Musk said, "and it was the most exciting thing he has ever seen," although he said the missile's core did not land on the drone ship in the Atlantic as expected. , but it hit the nearby water.

NASA CEO Robert Lightfoot said, "All of us in this business know the effort it takes to make the first flight of any new vehicle and recognize the extraordinary results we have seen today." Prior to launch, Musk downplayed expectations for the launch, saying the mission could end in a "fireworks display." "When I see the rocket hovering in the air, I think of a thousand things that couldn't work and it's amazing to see a hit live."

The launch of Falcon Heavy marks a turning point for the heavy-lift rocket industry. It can lift 64 tons of cargo into orbit, doubling the lifting capacity of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost, the company said.

Only the Saturn V lunar rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payloads into orbit. "A functioning Falcon Heavy will make SpaceX the proud owner of the most powerful rocket system since the Saturn V and open a new market in the orbit launch industry," said Jason Davis of the Planetary Society, the largest US non-profit organization. which promotes space exploration.

“We can offer undoubtedly super-heavy, or near-super-heavy capabilities, Musk said. NASA and a few other American private companies including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin are also developing their own heavy-lift rockets, but Musk's massive booster, today, is unrivaled. Additionally, the rocket's maiden voyage is believed to bring deep space exploration closer. "The Falcon Heavy is definitely capable of sending a manned spaceship around the moon," Musk said, suggesting that an improved version of the rocket will be "ideal for interplanetary colonization and for establishing a large base on the moon and a city on Mars ". The Falcon Heavy is a "prelude" and "will teach us a lot about what is needed to have a platform with an insane number of engines." The future is here, added the Space X billionaire.