Well , it encounter . It actually happened . After seven years of waiting , SpaceX ’s Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off last dark from Cape Canaveral in Florida in a stunning launching watched around the world .
On board was Elon Musk ’s own Tesla Roadster car , intended to be shot to the orbital airplane of Mars because reasons . However , it look like the auto overshot a scrap , and it ’ll really head further into the Solar System , to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter .
The car was on asix - minute coastthrough space on the top part of the rocket , the upper microscope stage . SpaceX had then planned to wake the upper stage , know as the third sunburn , and send the railcar into its last arena . They were n’t sure this would work , however , but it take care like it did .
“ Third burn successful . transcend Mars domain and kept going to the Asteroid Belt , ” Musk wrote on Twitter .
Amazing images were returned back to Earth of the railroad car heading to orbit , with its “ Starman ” manikin at heart and a dashboard message of “ Do n’t Panic ! ” , a reference toHitchhiker ’s scout To The Galaxy . Three camera on board the cable car gave us some pretty amazing horizon of Earth , and some unbeatable advertising for Tesla to boot .
Thanks to that third burn the auto is now on an orbit that will take it 2.61 AU from the Sun ( 1 AU , astronomical unit of measurement , is the Earth - Sun length ) . That ’s almost to the orbit of Ceres at 2.77 AU , a dwarf planet and the largest eubstance in the asteroid knock . Originally , it was intend only to attain the orbital plane of Mars .
Musk had originally said the car would survive in blank space for up to a billion twelvemonth . However , it ’s not well-defined whether this new orbital path will change thing – there ’s a chance Jupiter could cause the scope to degradewithin decades .
“ you may separate it ’s real because it looks so phony , ” Musk joked in a post - launch press group discussion . “ Everything looks too crispy . We did n’t really quiz any cloth , it has the same seats , it ’s just a normal elevator car , in space … I care the absurdity of that . "
The design of this wasseveral - crease . One reason is that it turn up Falcon Heavy can be used to post payloads into in high spirits orbit – such as geostationary orbits , useful for people like the US military .
It also shows that Falcon Heavy can post things to Mars and beyond . That might be utile to , say , asteroid miner , who are hoping to send spacecraft into the asteroid belt . And to scientists , too , who want to commit mission around the Solar System .
live over the launching here if you missed it .
The Tesla will take about eight month to reach the end of its orbit , at which point it will make the long journey back to our orbital plane . If it does n’t get flung off by the gravity of a body like Jupiter , it ’ll remain on this electron orbit indefinitely , or until it dispatch an asteroid or a satellite ( both of which are reasonably unconvincing ) .
Not everyone was felicitous with this plan . A lot of scientist have expressed frustration that Musk send his elevator car into space , rather than a useful scientific delegacy – even if there was a risk of the rocket salad blowing up .
Musk has frequently say he did this rather than using a concrete trial system of weights , as he explained has been used on other maiden garden rocket flight . But that ’s not always the case . The first Ariane 5 launching in 1996 , for illustration , hold four useful satellite ( although the launch failed ) . Atlas V , launch for the first time in 2002 , comport a mathematical group of satellites . And even the Falcon 9 ’s first flight in 2010 had something useful , a paradigm Dragon spacecraft .
Whatever your views on that , there ’s no denying the launch was seriously impressive . First unveiled by Muskin 2011 , and delayed for about five year , Falcon Heavy has now launched into our tenderness – and our billfold .
With a launch terms of about $ 90 million , Musk articulate SpaceX can now far undercut their rival , drop dead so far as to say this was “ secret plan over ” for all other heavy - lift arugula – such as the Delta IV Heavy , which is four time more expensive but less than half as powerful .
That abject price is made possible by the fact most of the rocket is reusable . About eight minutes after the launch , the rocket ’s two side boosters returned to Earth in a arresting coinciding dual landing place .
Musk later said that the center core booster had crashed into the sea at 300 mph ( 480 km/h ) and been destroy , after tend out of fuel while attempt to shoot down on a drone ship . This booster went further into space , which is why it attempted a landing further out at sea .
That does n’t take too much forth from the launching , however , considering it was50 - 50if the rocket would blow up or not . It did n’t , and it ’s now the most powerful Eruca sativa in performance today , and the swelled to set up since terminal Saturn atomic number 23 launch in 1973 .
The precise purpose of the Falcon Heavy is still a bit unreadable , as Musk said they werenow focusingon its heir , the full-grown F*cking Rocket ( BFR ) . Still , it has four design upcoming launches , and there may be more in the plant . Scientific mission seem like a pretty good bet .
“ Falcon Heavy open up up a unexampled class of load , ” tell Musk . “ It can establish things now to Pluto and beyond . No stopover needed , with no gravity assist . ”
There ’s little doubt , though , that SpaceX has inspired a whole raw long time of space exploration . The earth is transfix by Falcon Heavy febrility . Whatever comes next , we ’re glad to be along for the ride .
Update February 8 : Looks like the railcar might just make it to Mars sphere , although that ’s to be confirmed .
