When Falcon Heavy lifted off, it set the record for the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. The most powerful rocket in history was NASA's Saturn V rocket, which was used for the Apollo moon landings and was retired in the 1970s.
The more thrust a rocket has, the farther it can travel and the bigger the satellite, spacecraft or other payload it can send into orbit. That opens up a whole range of business opportunities for SpaceX, which has been leading a new era of spaceflight in which companies -- not just governments -- drive the industry forward.
With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)--- a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel-- Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost.
But the Falcon Heavy is essentially three Falcon 9s strapped together, and it'll boast about three times the thrust of the Falcon 9. And, compared to rockets that better rival the Falcon Heavy's power, it's a bargain.
The Delta IV Heavy, which is built by legacy aerospace firm United Launch Alliance and is currently the world's most powerful rocket, can reportedly cost as much as $400 million per launch.
It should also be noted that the Falcon Heavy will out-power the Delta IV Heavy by a factor of two.
Why is it so cheap?
SpaceX says it's been able to undercut the competition on price because of its reusable rocket parts.
The company is the only rocket builder in the world that safely returns first-stage rocket boosters back to Earth.
The first Falcon Heavy flight will even use two refurbished boosters from previous Falcon 9 missions.
Falcon Heavy's first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at lift-off, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Following lift-off, the two side boosters separated from the center core and returned to landing sites for future re-use. The center core, traveling further and faster than the side boosters, also returned for re-use, but unfortunately crash-landed on a drone ship located in the Atlantic Ocean. At max velocity, the Roadster, Elon Musk's Tesla electric car used a dummy payload, travelled at 11 km/s (7mi/s) and travel 400 million km (250 million mi) from Earth.
Even standing on the launch pad, the Falcon Heavy was impressive. It clocked in at 229.6 feet tall and 39.9 feet wide. When the engines ignited they carried 3,125,735 pounds of rocket alone, in addition to the mass of of the cargo. For this first run, it carried Musk’s Tesla Roadster with a pressure suit called 'Starman' sitting in the car. There's no scientific reason to send the car to space. But it does serve as self-promotion for Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla. When asked on Twitter why he wanted to throw away a $100,000 car, he replied, "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."
Car and spaceman in hanger
On future missions the rocket could carry 140,660 pounds of payload to low-earth orbit, 37,040 to Mars, and 7,720 lbs to Pluto (the longer the journey, the more fuel you need—and fuel takes up weight of its own).
Want to launch something on the Falcon Heavy? There are definitely less expensive ways to get rid of your car. A cargo launch to geostationary orbit will cost you $90 million. The price tag might seem high—but as Reuters reports, it's a fourth the cost of its closest competitor, and can carry payloads twice as massive.
Musk and SpaceX has already begun to turn their attention to their next venture, the BFR. SpaceX has said the rocket will be capable of sending humans to Mars, even though SpaceX is planning to build an entirely different system for Mars travel, called the BFR.
But while we wait for that next leap in technology, the Falcon Heavy will keep launching. It has already won a contract for a Saudi Arabian communications satellite, and is contracted to launch scientific and military satellites (dubbed STP-2 that includes some weather forecasting satellites.) for the Air Force later this year.
SpaceX also said in early 2017 that two space tourists put down a deposit to ride on a Falcon Heavy for a trip around the moon. At the time, SpaceX said that trip could occur in 2018, though the company hasn't offered any updates.
How much does it cost?
The Falcon Heavy has a $90 million sticker price. That's 45% more expensive than the Falcon 9 rocket SpaceX has used for every mission going back to 2012.
Falcon 9 Heavy isn't, however, bigger or more powerful than the mighty Saturn V that was used to launch the Apollo astronauts to the moon in the '60s
and '70s and then to launch the Skylab space station in 1973.
Status: First test flight took place February 6
Height: 229.6 feet (70 meters)
Liftoff thrust: 5 million pounds
Capability: 140,660 pounds (63,800 kilograms) to LEO
(Note: Capability refers to the maximum payload weight the rocket can deliver to Low-Earth Orbit.)
Planned payloads: One Tesla (dummy payload), satellites, cargo, astronauts, tourists
Even after the Falcon Heavy launches, the Saturn V will remain the tallest and most powerful rocket ever, and the only one to help carry humans beyond Earth's orbit. NASA used the Saturn V to send astronauts to the moon in the Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 spacecraft.
A Saturn V also launched Apollo 13, but the spacecraft (not the rocket) had a problem and the astronauts didn't land. The last Saturn V was used to launch Skylab, America's first space station, on May 14, 1973.
Status: Retired in 1973
Height: 363 feet (111 meters)
Liftoff thrust: 7.6 million pounds (3.4 million kilograms)
Capability: 260,000 pounds (118,000 kilograms) to LEO
Payloads: Apollo spacecraft and astronauts, Skylab
Blue Origin -- the space startup created by Amazon's Jeff Bezos -- has a small, reusable rocket to send paying tourists on trips to sub-orbital space. But, the company also has plans for a monstrous new machine that can send people and payloads to Earth's orbit. It'll come in two configurations: one
with two stages and another with an added third stage for extra boost.
Status: First test flight no earlier than 2020
Height: 326 feet (99.4 meters)
Liftoff thrust: 3.9 million pounds (1.8 million kilograms)
Capability: 10,000 pounds (4,500 kilograms) to LEO
Planned payloads: Satellites, humans
United Launch Alliance, has the Delta IV Heavy. This rocket was first tested in 2004 and it's taller than the Falcon Heavy, but SpaceX is promising to take up heavier payloads. The Delta IV Heavy doesn't fly often, but it's been the U.S. military's go-to rocket for sending large national security
satellites into orbit.
Status: Currently operational
Height: 235 feet (71.6 meters)
Liftoff thrust: 2.1 million pounds (1 million kilograms)
Capability: 62,500 pounds (28,000 kilograms) to LEO
Payloads: Satellites
United Launch Alliance is developing a new generation of rockets, dubbed Vulcan after the Roman god of fire. The concept was first announced in 2015, and CEO Tory Bruno has said the most powerful version of the Vulcan could rival the Falcon Heavy's power. The Vulcan can add thrust by strapping extra rocket boosters to the sides of its main column.
Status: First test flight no earlier than 2020
Height: 228 ft (69.5 meters)
Liftoff thrust: 3.8 million pounds (1.7 million kg)
Capability: 80,000 pounds (36,000 kg)
Space Shuttle refers to the reusable spacecraft system that NASA developed to send people and payloads into orbit between 1981 and 2011. The systems consisted of a white winged "Orbiter" with powerful engines that attached to a massive external fuel tank and two rocket boosters on the launch pad. There were five "Orbiters" capable of spaceflight -- Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis.
Status: Retired in 2011
Height: 184 feet (56.1 meters) including external tank
Capability: 65,000 pounds (2,900 kilograms) to LEO
Liftoff thrust: 7.8 million pounds (3.5 million kg)
Payload: Astronauts, experiments, supplies, other cargo, satellites
No comments:
Post a Comment