Falcon Heavy test flight has a launch date

in #space6 years ago (edited)

FH

The long awaited Falcon Heavy launcher, built by SpaceX, finally has a planned date for its maiden flight! The 70 meter tall, 12 meter wide, and, when fully fueled, 1.4 million kilogram rocket is set to launch on the 6th of February, at 18:30 GMT, from Launchpad 39A at Cape Canaveral, Florida. There will be a 3 hour launch window, with a backup window set for the next day. This is not due to orbital requirements, as the payload is a dummy payload, but is rather set to be favourable to the SpaceX launch team.

As mentioned, the payload is not operational, in fact it's a PR move, for Elon Musk to promote the companies he's a CEO of. Thus, it will attempt to use the largest, most powerful rocket since the Space Shuttle, to send Tesla's first electric car, pictured to the right, in an orbit around the Sun, right around where Mars is. By the way, this is Elon Musk's personal vehicle, so, in his words, "Excitement on launch day guaranteed, one way or another", especially for him. Hopefully, the excitement will not come from an explosion, but from witnessing all three cores landing back on Earth successfully, two back at the launch pad, and one on the drone ship out in the Atlantic Ocean. I for one, am very hyped for this launch. If you are, too, make sure to check in again then. I'll be sure to make a post about it when the launch counter hits T-0.

ISS EVA

Yesterday, I had bad news regarding space operations, and I wrote this post, but as it turns out, the faulty fixture, newly mounted in the repair work done to the CanadArm 2 of the International Space Station (which I also covered here), has been fixed. Astronauts were supposed to replace it again tomorrow, reverting to the old one, as they believed that it was an internal hardware problem. But engineers from the Canadian Space Agency and the robotic arm's builder, Maxar Technologies, developed a software update and resolved the issue, thus canceling the replacement tomorrow, and reverting to the old mission parameters, as a spacewalk was planned for tomorrow, regardless.

Thankfully, today was a good day regarding space news, hopefully more to come! What are your thoughts on the latest SpaceX rocket? Will you watch the launch? Share below, along with any feedback you might have. It is greatly appreciated!


Thank you for reading, and keep on steemin'!


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Hey @sebi99 I am a curator from the Whaleshares Curation Team. I have selected your post to be presented in a live curation discussion on Monday 29th January. Your post will be awarded with a 100 Whaleshares vote on the night. I do hope you can come along and spectate. The event will be held in The Curation Lounge on the Whaleshares server. Here's a link which explains things:https://steemit.com/steemit/@nikflossus/the-whaleshares-curation-show-tomorrow-night-23-59gmt-or-6-59est-featuring-reko

Thanks, I hope I can be awake to join the discussions.

I can't get enough of SpaceX and modern day Leonardo Da Vinci, Elon Musk.

I can't either! I can't wait for February, 6th!

But I wouldn't say Musk's like Da Vinci. He's a very smart man, don't get me wrong, but is a great financier / investor, not an inventor. Still, very commendable, that he uses his wealth to further important research. beneficial to humankind :)

You are right. We've been perhaps too generous in assignating anyone the moniker of "modern's day Da Vinci", like they did with Steve Job in his day. Couldn't help it. :)

Yeah, no worries. At least, unlike Steve Jobs, Musk didn't steal his way to the top. I still admire the guy for what he's doing. After all, he is paving the way to new heights (literally), and this is rocket science, not the easiest field.

Also, in today's world, any field you pick is way more expansive than anything in Da Vinci's day. As smart as anyone can be, there's no way one can cover so many areas, just too much information :)

Good Information bro , Thanks @sebi99p

No problem! Glad you enjoy!

Great information and I wonder what will happen with it. Cannot believe you write so well and english isn't your first language?!

Thank you! No, my mother tongue is romanian :)
If all goes well, we'll find out in a week. Hopefully, it launches perfectly, and we'll see three rocket stages land back safely. I can't wait to see that show :D

Hi, I found some acronyms/abbreviations in this post. This is how they expand:

AcronymExplanation
EVAExtra-Vehicular Activity

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