Credit: SpaceX
Posted on 02/07/2018 4:54:26 PM PST by BenLurkin
In a late-night update, Musk announced that the Falcon Heavy stage did survive its daring slog through the Van Allen belts.
"Third burn successful," Musk wrote on Twitter. "Exceeded Mars orbit and kept going to the Asteroid Belt."
Starman and the Roadster are now flying in a long, elliptical orbit around the sun. At its farthest point, that orbit extends nearly 243 million miles (390 million kilometers). That's 2.61 times the average distance between Earth and the sun, which is, on average, about 93 million miles (150 million km).
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Credit: SpaceX
Watching that laumch yesterday, I got the same tingle I got when I was a pre-teen and watching the Apollo missions.
Helluva show
It will probably hit an asteroid, alter its trajectory, which will in a few years crash into earth and destroy all life.
I hope he’s got collision insurance on the car.
It was only a few years ago that I was watching a few of the old 50’s and 60’s scifi movies, where the rockets landed engines down, in some ridiculous fashion. “Yeah, right.” I would always say.
And here we are.
[ It will probably hit an asteroid, alter its trajectory, which will in a few years crash into earth and destroy all life. ]
GEICO won’t cover that....
The nameplate on the car will be damaged, it will read "V-ger".
I agree, I’ve never been been a fan of Musk one way or another but this was damn amazing. Kudos to him and the team who engineered this. Putting the car in there was brilliant IMO.
And the boosters landing like that? Wow!
“DON’T PANIC”
So it only takes 2 days to go to Mars now? It took the Apollo missions 3 days to go to the moon. SpaceX, with new improved rocketry, probably can go to another star system within a month or so....obvious sarcasm off. It is estimated to take 130 to 210 days for NASA to travel to Mars, yet Elon Musk passes Mars orbit in 48 hours. Something is wrong with this story.
When he was a fresh millionaire he wrecked a million dollar car with no insurance on it.
That was magnificent. I have never been more proud of American free enterprise. I wept.
I agree, I’ve never been been a fan of Musk one way or another but this was damn amazing. Kudos to him and the team who engineered this. Putting the car in there was brilliant IMO.
And the boosters landing like that? Wow!
...
Maybe if you learned more about him you would be a fan. I guarantee the snarky comments from those on FR with Musk Derangement Syndrome aren’t a good source of information.
Coolest thing evah!
Launch your car into orbit then have those booster things land with retro rockets...it almost looks fake!
Musk is making NASA look stupid.
So it only takes 2 days to go to Mars now? It took the Apollo missions 3 days to go to the moon. SpaceX, with new improved rocketry, probably can go to another star system within a month or so....obvious sarcasm off. It is estimated to take 130 to 210 days for NASA to travel to Mars, yet Elon Musk passes Mars orbit in 48 hours. Something is wrong with this story.
...
Musk was making reference to the predicted orbit which kept enlarging as the second stage ran the propellant dry.
I confess, I’ve read the article twice and that’s what it sounds like. Truly confusing.
SpaceX is a NASA contractor. They are making the other contractors look stupid along with foreign governments and their space programs.
Elon Musk’s growing empire is fueled by $4.9 billion in government subsidies
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