SpaceX just made history.

[Strychnine]

It's on the pad

"With more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff—equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft at full power—Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two."

https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/ExcitableAcidicHornshark

[svauto-erotic855]

Wouldn't be a complete waste. Good marketing if he was ever able to get that car to the surface, on a flat area. The car would run fine on mars. And you could take it off some sweet jumps.

Make an ad that says "Do not attempt on earth"

To operate in a hard vacuum any system needs to designed around that operating environment. The coolant in a Tesla's battery pack would go away nearly instantly if it not freeze solid first and the individual cells themselves would freeze and split. Every bearing that has grease in the entire car would also have to be redesigned along with LCD anythings. Any mechanical switch that has tight tolerances would have to be redesigned. The tires would have to be replace with metal disc and the brakes hydraulic system would be a nightmare.

[Sgt Beavis]

Do we have a launch date for the triple dildo?

[Strychnine]

Do we have a launch date for the triple dildo?

"Later this month" is the most specific I've seen. They'll do a static test fire on the pad first to test/verify all the processes, and if that goes well then a launch date will be set.


And someone edited a Saturn V into the SpaceX vid for scale.

[Sgt Beavis]

And someone edited a Saturn V into the SpaceX vid for scale.

That's pretty sweet..

[mschmoyer]

I don't follow the situation..

So I assume he's had no luck with getting nasa to just turn over everything they know? They seem to be pretty good at getting stuff into orbit, and if he's saying he doesn't think it will make it that far, well there are some people you could ask.

"Hi uh, NASA, you can build rockets right?" -elon
"Well, we canned our shuttle because it was too expensive, unsafe, and not really reusable. But we outsource a few expensive, low-tech rockets!" -NASA
"Oh uh, well do you launch anything BIG?"
"We've been talking about building a big one for years now, but it's delayed due to technical issues and budget constraints, so no."
...

NASA is evolving into a payload company. Soon they'll be hitching rides and not building any rockets. They aren't the end-all-be-all of rocketry these days.

This is all a marketing ploy anyways. If you want the real, boring truth of it, this is a "demonstration" flight meant to test capabilities. You can't QA test a rocket in simulations forever. Best data gained by tossing one up with the expectation that everything will work, but also acknowledging thousands of unknowns.

[Broncojohnny]

Elon Musk doesn't need to ask NASA for secrets because he just hires their employees away. They do the same thing at Planetary Resources.

[Sgt Beavis]

Elon Musk doesn't need to ask NASA for secrets because he just hires their employees away. They do the same thing at Planetary Resources.

That's correct, a lot of his people came from NASA, JPL, and ULA. The big difference is that he wants to push the envelope, and push it fast. Frankly we haven't seen this pace of development since the early X program or the Space Race.

[CJ]

My company did a huge PR hitjob on Musk today, it was rather... unexpected.

[Sgt Beavis]

My company did a huge PR hitjob on Musk today, it was rather... unexpected.

So is it on electric cars, tunneling, rockets, or solar power? So many things you can hit him on.

[Ruffdaddy]

So is it on electric cars, tunneling, rockets, or solar power? So many things you can hit him on.

Maybe it was a comparison of his companies and financial practices with Enron?

Or the a fact that his behavior is a lot like that of trump...hes just not hated by the leftist media (yet)?

[Sgt Beavis]

Like I said, there are so many things you can hit him on.

[Strychnine]

Falcon 9 launch over the weekend.


Higher res: https://i.redd.it/8jkukgakvq801.jpg

Spacing was roughly as follows. 00:00 is liftoff.
Exposure 1: 00:00 -> 3:13
Exposure 2: ~3:15 -> ~5:15
Exposure 3: ~6:00 -> ~8:00

[jw33]

Zuma dead?

https://sattrackcam.blogspot.nl/2018/01/fuel-dump-of-zumas-falcon-9-upper-stage.html

[mschmoyer]

Zuma dead?

Probably. But whispers right now say the rocket did it's part. Truth will come out someday. Either SpaceX will want to clear their name, or we'll just see them stop receiving gov't contracts.

Edit: Awesome image above.