
Falcon Heavy Demonstration Mission [pdf] - garciagomezluis
http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/falconheavypresskit_v1.pdf
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dylan604
I saw the video animation of the Tesla separating from the second stage. At
that point, the car no longer has thrust, so I'm assuming they've calculated
the thrust to be just enough to reach Mars and to be able to fall into orbit.
To quote the movie Apollo 13, "we've just put Isaac Newton in the driver's
seat". I dearly hope that Musk and team have been referring to the "dummy" in
the driver's seat of the Tesla as Isaac.

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dzdt
They aren't aiming for Mars orbit. As far as I can tell, they aren't even
aiming to come close to Mars. Instead (as far as I can tell) they are aiming
to come close to the orbit of Mars, i.e. where Mars will be in 4 or 5 months.

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api
So basically they're just throwing a car into space.

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ogre_magi
Into deep space. This will be SpaceX's first flight beyond Earth orbit.

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grecy
It will be the first commercial space flight beyond Earth orbit

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SteveGregory
Here’s a to-scale graph of the path each core/stage takes:

[https://imgur.com/a/XvPXG](https://imgur.com/a/XvPXG)

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garciagomezluis
[http://www.spacex.com/webcast](http://www.spacex.com/webcast)

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owlninja
Did it get delayed? YouTube channel now says going live in another 2 hours

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scrumbledober
It's currently delayed until about an hour before the launch window closes,
and they are hoping for the winds to die down. looks unlikely that they will
launch today.

EDIT: nevermind fuel is being loaded and the "holy mouse click" has happened.

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alkonaut
When is the next window?

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djaychela
Tomorrow, same times (13:30-16:00 EST, I believe, I'm in the UK, so it's
18:30-21:00, that I do know!)

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Axsuul
This will be a historic flight. It will be interesting regardless the outcome
XD

27 engines!

"When Falcon Heavy lifts off in 2018, it will be the most powerful operational
rocket in the world by a factor of two"

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scrumbledober
the most powerful operational rocket, but not the most powerful ever. I
believe the Saturn V was more powerful.

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kozziollek
Yes, they say in the same PDF:

> Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to
> orbit.

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mstank
Just got word from a friend that all SpaceX employee names are etched on the
Tesla roadster. So either they will orbit indefinitely around the sun or blow
up spectacularly.

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grecy
They have just started fueling the rocket. It seems the launch may happen
today...

[https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF](https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF)

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unixhero
What a time to be alive

