Falcon Heavy - 7&8 Reuse - Elon's Roadster Demo - LC-39A

[BluestarE3]

You know you've arrived when you've made it into the consciousness of the general public:
My kid's preschool added something special yesterday to the solar system diorama they made last week. • r/teslamotors

 

[Grendal]

A second segment from Stephen Colbert, who owns a Tesla, and is obviously a big space nut like some of us here:

Here was the first segment from Colbert:

James Corden did a bit on the Late Late Show at 3:15.

 

[BluestarE3]

And for those of you with an adequate telescope, you may be able to spot Starman and the Roadster:
Astronomers spot Starman and his Tesla Roadster floating through space

 

[MorrisonHiker]

 

[macpacheco]

The funny part for those who really understand whats going on is everybody else really thinks the roadster is going to mars (to land or stay in orbit). Actually its so sad its funny !

 

[Patrick W]

Musk meets Star Trek (they got the date wrong but still funny for us Trekers):

Barry Healey

 

[dhanson865]

OK, here's confirmation I was wrong about altitude, and I'm not sure about speed. I'm open to any possible cause of the TEA/TAB issue now. I don't think we can know as 3rd party observers what happened, we'll have to rely on SpaceX to tell us.

 

[Nikxice]

Here was the first segment from Colbert:

Now that Colbert has stated he's relinquished his "King Nerd" hat to Elon, expect 50,000 of these to be sold any day now.

 

[ecarfan]

As part of National Geographic’s marketing for the 2nd season of “Mars”, this short video was released about the FH launch including scenes of Elon watching the launch in SpaceX’s KSC Mission Control room and then rushing outside to watch the ascent. He had some choice words to say... Exclusive: Watch Elon Musk Freak Out Over the Falcon Heavy Launch

 

[MyJoule]

ecarfan- Thanks for sharing that link - Elon looked astonished that it worked! I guess he wasn't convinced that is was going to work before it did.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Just getting back into this thread now since Tuesday!

I think we need t-shirts: "HOLY FLYING ****, THE THING TOOK OFF!"

 

[dhanson865]

Just getting back into this thread now since Tuesday!

I think we need t-shirts: "HOLY FLYING ****, THE THING TOOK OFF!"

My wife misheard the 2nd word as being the same as the 3rd like Dexter's sister (Debra Morgan) would do "Holy F***** ****, The thing took off". I had to explain to her that he said "Flying" not "f*****". Still it is sorta Debra Morgan like.

 

[Mike1080i]

Thanks for posting that @ecarfan ! Makes me wish all the more that I could have stuck around for the FH launch.

 

[scaesare]

So, am I now correct in understanding that the upper right feed is the side booster landing (with a rotated image), not the center core like I've been thinking for the last 2 hours?

 

[ecarfan]

ecarfan- Thanks for sharing that link - Elon looked astonished that it worked! I guess he wasn't convinced that is was going to work before it did.

As he said in the post launch press conference, every time he watches a rocket launch he thinks about the thousand things that can go wrong and how any one of them will cause a launch failure. In this case he was watching a new rocket design launch for the first time. He knew that there was a significant probability of failure. I think he was genuinely surprised that everything worked correctly

Sure, the center core recovery failed. At this point SpaceX has not provided much detail as to why it failed. But I’m sure it is a solvable problem.

The FH launch with side boosters landed and Roadster payload sent into a fair approximation of the orbit that Elon wanted to happen was a massive success, and only a tiny fraction of all the people who are aware of the launch even realize that the center core hit the ocean at about 300mph. Most of the media reports I have seen didn’t even mention it.

 

[e-FTW]

Here's a video of Elon Musk watching the Falcon Heavy take off - TechCrunch Here's a video of Elon Musk watching the Falcon Heavy take off — TechCrunch

 

[Grendal]

Here's a video of Elon Musk watching the Falcon Heavy take off - TechCrunch Here's a video of Elon Musk watching the Falcon Heavy take off — TechCrunch

ecarfan already posted that upthread. It's spectacular to see. Now I can't wait for the Mars 2 show (Fall!?) to see Elon's reaction in more detail and they will probably have more personal interviews with him about Mars colonization. The path to Mars colonization success is firming up. FH is a great stepping stone to BFR/BFS which can be the workhorse transport to our solar system. I can only hope I live long enough to see it. I also hope that Elon lives long enough to see his efforts come to fruition.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Just remembered this... can anyone get their hands on the playlist that was playing at the Banana Creek/Saturn V center before the launch? It was a wonderfully curated/arranged mix of loosely space/travel/fantasy related songs. And not the obvious ones (Rocket Man), it was much more subtle (like Magic Carpet Ride and such). I'm sure SpaceX created it, and it kinda had that "Touched by Elon" feel to it. I'd sure love to get that playlist.

 

[dhanson865]

Where is Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster with Starman?

Awesome.

Closest Approach of Mars on October 7th, 2020 at a distance of about 0.050 AU (about 4650000 miles).

That's further than the moon is from Earth (0.0025 AU) by about 19 to 20 times. So it'd be visible from the ground on Mars with cheap binocs/telescope but not the naked eye (or through a non optically enhanced space helmet).

Entirely possible there might be a time we see it in view near mars while a manned flight is there.

Heck maybe a manned flight passes it on the way to mars and takes video of it as they pass.

 

[dhanson865]

OK, here's confirmation I was wrong about altitude, and I'm not sure about speed. I'm open to any possible cause of the TEA/TAB issue now. I don't think we can know as 3rd party observers what happened, we'll have to rely on SpaceX to tell us.

OK, Elon gives the final answer

Not enough ignition fluid to light the outer two engines after several three engine relights. Fix is pretty obvious.

go figure, they just didn't load enough for the flight profile.

Apparently they weren't too concerned because it was a block 4 core. Next flight with block 5 core they'll load it up with a lot more TEA/TAB.