
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches - mpweiher
https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/06/spacexs-historic-falcon-heavy-successfully-launches/?ncid=rss&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
======
runesoerensen
_" That core booster approached the platform as planned, but it unfortunately
hit the water going 300 MPH and was lost, because some of its return engines
failed to light"_

[https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/06/spacex-landed-two-of-
its-t...](https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/06/spacex-landed-two-of-its-three-
falcon-heavy-first-stage-boosters/)

~~~
meatbags
Thanks for the closure - I've been refreshing twitter all morning.

I've seen the much-touted $90M price-tag for the FH launch, but does that take
into account loss of the core or boosters?

~~~
akozak
I think he said in the press conference that they weren't planning to reuse
the core or boosters. (But then mentioned later they wanted some of the parts?
IDK)

~~~
Laforet
Correct, the engines were going to be retired anyway but they are keen to
reuse the titanium grid fins on the boosters which cost a small fortune to
make.

The core actually had older ablative grid fins made of aluminium so no great
loss there[0].

[0][https://i.redd.it/l6s2bds7pl801.png](https://i.redd.it/l6s2bds7pl801.png)

~~~
0xTJ
Have you seen an approximate price for those fins anywhere. I saw the
interviews, but I want to know how expensive is expensive.

~~~
nigwil_
Platinum is USD$32K per KG, so if the platinum grid fins are 100KG, then they
would cost > $300K each just for materials. With 4 per booster that might be a
million dollar price tag for the grid fins.

~~~
varjag
The fins are titanium, not platinum. The cost of material is negligible.

~~~
nigwil_
Oops, you’re right my mistake

------
zhoujianfu
There was something doubly awesome about the two falcons landing at the same
time right next to each other!

~~~
aphextron
Can confirm this was the greatest thing I've ever witnessed in my life.

[https://youtu.be/AGPH_i0ZlyM?t=56](https://youtu.be/AGPH_i0ZlyM?t=56)

~~~
protonimitate
There's something awesome (in the literal sense) and unsettling about watching
something and being able to say "I am witnessing history".

~~~
latj
Did anyone else notice that the bottom two windows are not different cameras
on different boosters? The guy even told us, "I know they look similar but
they're different". Nope, they are the same. Watch how you can see two pads
and they both land on the pad on the right. And you can see the second booster
burning in the same orientation. The roads leading to the pads also make it
easy to notice.

~~~
geerlingguy
For this launch the live stream editors probably had 4x the normal amount of
feeds to switch, so I’ll forgive them for a couple editing mishaps. I’m
guessing they don’t have the same setup as would be at something like the
Super Bowl... at least not yet :)

~~~
ygra
They also failed to show the fairing separation view when the music started
and repeated that shot after the stream was essentially over. I guess a lot of
things were just new and not quite like normal F9 launches (where presentation
has been largely flawless for a while now).

------
buildbuildbuild
Love that SpaceX’s own team shoots, announces, and switches the live
production in-house rather than hiring a production company.

Also love seeing machinists side by side cheering with software engineers,
standing by a mission control which is placed feet from where engines are
assembled on the shop floor.

Open company culture well-executed.

Congratulations to all there!

~~~
mabbo
This is why I love the live streams hosted by John Innsprucker. He doesn't
look like a TV star, he looks like an engineer, a rocket scientist. He looks
real.

The other hosts are great, but if you told me they were hired actors or PR
people I'd believe it.

~~~
CydeWeys
You're showing your biases here. The other people on the livestream _are_ also
rocket scientists. They aren't PR people. They just happen to be younger, or
women, or of color. So you might want to re-evaluate what you think a rocket
scientist "looks like", because your notion is outdated.

Sorry to call you out like this, but these kinds of prejudices about who is
the "correct" kind of person for tech jobs are harmful and discouraging to the
people who don't fit the stereotypes, and helps contribute to keeping them out
of the field.

~~~
ColanR
> They just happen to be younger, or women, or of color.

Maybe parent was referring to their mannerisms, rather than their appearance.
It's not fair to jump to the assumption that parent was showing a bias against
any of those variations in the human species.

~~~
Old_Thrashbarg
To be pedantic, the poster did say "looks like" and:

\- "looks like" is associated with physical appearance - possibly things like
clothes, jewelry, gender, hair, skin color, face, etc. \- "sounds like" is
associated with their speech - tone, accent, choice of diction \- "acts like"
is associated with physical behavior + speech

But anyway, I think the point is that, we don't know what mabbo's intent was
and 95% likely it was totally benign, but CydeWes is pointing out that saying
things like that has a harmful effect by propagating certain stereotypes.

Pointing out someone's implicit biases is not necessarily a personal attack on
them. Everyone has them so we should welcome when people point them out
(unless done in an mean-spirited or aggressive fashion).

Personally, when I read mabbo's comment, I thought, "Yeah, so true, good
point!", then I read the next comment and I thought, "Oh right, thanks for
pointing that out to me".

~~~
Old_Thrashbarg
It reminds me of when I interviewed at Google.

At the end of one of my onsite interviews, while showing me out the door, the
interviewer turned to me with a big smile and said "you really look like you
fit in around here". I almost burst out laughing.

I guarantee he had no malice but I just found it funny for one tall, white
dude with glasses to say that to another tall, white dude with glasses. And he
was right, I did blend in pretty well.

You might argue that perhaps he wasn't referring to my appearance but rather
my uhhh.... hand gestures while talking, but at some point you have to call a
spade a spade.

I left without saying anything just because I feel awkward sometimes, but in
retrosepct, I should have said something. He was so good-natured, I'm sure he
would have genuinely appreciated me pointing out that certain people might
find his words harmful.

~~~
losteric
What's harmful about saying someone fits in? I use that as a filler statement
after good interviews... if they performed well, they fit in. Does that offend
people?

~~~
sah2ed
You might be eminently qualified to do the work but in reality no one works in
isolation (unless you are Joe Hewitt [0]). So unless you can mind read, no one
can say for sure if you will fit in with the existing culture to get the job
done, a subtle aspect many people overlook.

A good example of a qualified hire quitting just after six months is Chris
Lattner who quit because "... Tesla isn't a good fit for me after all." [1].
You are free to Google the personality clashes which made it difficult for him
to continue at Tesla.

[0] [https://medium.com/@joehewitt/entrepreneurship-or-lack-
there...](https://medium.com/@joehewitt/entrepreneurship-or-lack-
thereof-36ae0f420a07) \- original deleted but archived from Google's cache
here: [http://archive.is/1aDdk](http://archive.is/1aDdk)

[1]
[https://twitter.com/clattner_llvm/status/877341760812232704?...](https://twitter.com/clattner_llvm/status/877341760812232704?lang=en)

~~~
losteric
That uncertainty is always a given... addressed in the first three words of
"it looks like you'll fit in". I still don't see how that can be perceived as
offensive or insulting.

------
stanlarroque
It was awesome. The synchronized landing of both boosters was _emotional_.

Might be a naive thought, but for a few minutes, you forget everything else.
There were millions of people from every nation live-watching the broadcast
and everyone was cheering and hoping for the best.

The world seemed at peace during that moment and this is what I love about
space exploration and all these great human achievements.

~~~
BozeWolf
I sort of was hoping for a big bang. Am I the only one?

Landing these things will become the standard. mmillion dollar fireworks will
not. Anyways, still very impressed.

~~~
mattnewport
Some men just want to watch the world burn.

~~~
nojvek
I’d have paid for core booster missing the drone ship: “of course I still love
you” and say “I don’t love you” as it crashes in the water.

------
TeMPOraL
I. Am. Just. Speechless.

Perfect takeoff, 2 simultaneous landings (still waiting for confirmation on
the droneship landing), the car is in orbit.

I don't remember being so nervous watching a launch video since... Space
Shuttle missions, I think.

Great job, SpaceX!

~~~
FLUX-YOU
Watching the car orbit and the Earth's reflections in the windshield and paint
and Starman's visor is sublime (sometimes goes to cameras of the engine/orbit
overview)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M)

e.g. [https://i.imgur.com/Yu6gRar.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/Yu6gRar.jpg)

This is all I'm watching for the rest of the day
[https://imgur.com/oKWTAQk](https://imgur.com/oKWTAQk)

~~~
rhn_mk1
What are the particles flying with different speeds when the camera points
away from the Sun?

~~~
rtkwe
Link to a timestamp with what you're asking about please it's a 4 hour
video...

~~~
TeMPOraL
It's pretty much constant in the video; just keep watching until you notice
small particles floating about. I recall them being visible especially well
about 1 hour into the stream.

------
djaychela
That was like watching a sci fi film when the two cores landed.... I watched
it with my mother (who is 80!), and she said it was as significant as the moon
landing.

Do we know the fate of the centre core yet?

~~~
sangnoir
> Do we know the fate of the centre core yet?

I might be reading into something that's not there, but the presenters (I
didn't get their names) acted like they received surprising news in thier
monitors at 39:03[1] just as they were about to report on the drone ship
landing.

Dude: "We've just gotten confirmation..."

Lady: "oh!"

Dude: "Oh"

Lady: "[laughs] We are waiting to hear what happens..."

1\.
[https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c?t=39m5s](https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c?t=39m5s)

~~~
aerophilic
I think it was the right move, even if they knew then the main core had blown,
it is too easy for the naysayers to make _that_ the story. Taking away from
the real and powerful narrative SpaceX _must_ tell. That for the first time
since the Saturn V we have a rocket powerful enough in active service to take
us to the Moon/Mars, at a 1/3 of the price of the next heaviest lifter.

------
DonaldPShimoda
I'm just an amateur following along, but this seems likely to be one of the
most important launches in modern rocketry history. This sets the stage for
deep-space missions with reusable launch materials, which can greatly reduce
the cost of future space exploration. Absolutely incredible achievement by the
SpaceX team.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _this seems likely to be one of the most important launches in modern
> rocketry history_

SpaceX's Falcon project is the first major progress we've made in the field of
human spaceflight since the Apollo program.

~~~
jacquesm
The ISS should count as major progress as well.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
Should have, but didn't. At least not for manned spaceflight. We learned how
to keep humans alive in space way back with the Gemini project. A long-
duration orbital sojourn could have been had for the cost of the ISS. At the
end of the day, I struggle to think of a single big thing we can do post-ISS
that we couldn't without.

~~~
bryananderson
It may not make headlines, but the knowledge we have gained about long-
duration human health in space from ISS is utterly beyond price. For all its
problems, that alone makes ISS worth it.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _the knowledge we have gained about long-duration human health in space from
> ISS is utterly beyond price_

The knowledge was valuable, but not priceless. The same data could have been
gathered, many times over, with long-duration multi-member orbital missions.
We could have probably gotten an interplanetary flight in, too. The staggering
cost of the ISS crowded out a lot of good science.

~~~
bryananderson
There is no way we could have achieved a similar volume of data without ISS.
With ISS we get six astronaut-years of data every single year, and it’s got at
least another decade in it, barring political stupidity.

The argument could be made that we could have made do with less data, perhaps.
But we could not have gathered this volume even once without ISS, let alone
“many times”.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _There is no way we could have achieved a similar volume of data without
> ISS_

NASA spent 72 billion 2010 dollars on the ISS [1]. (Total cost is over $150
billion.) From Expedition 1 in 2000 through Expedition 53 in September, the
ISS played host to 25,290 crew days of human occupation [2]. That comes to
$2.8 million per day for NASA or over $5.9 million more generally. (Remember:
this does not include the cost of getting to nor from the ISS.)

The Apollo program cost $107 billion 2016 dollars [3], or $98 million 2010
dollars [4]. (This includes the cost of the Saturn I, Saturn IB and Saturn V
launch vehicles.) From Apollo 7 in 1968 through Apollo 17 in 1972, the Apollo
program hosted 305 crew days of human spaceflight [5]. That comes to $3.2
million per day.

TL; DR We could have replicated the time spent on the ISS with a series of
Apollo programs, using Apollo technology and Apollo-era costs, and had budget
left over for a manned (probably non-landing) interplanetary mission [6].

The ISS is a boondoggle [7] on every measure except number of dollars funneled
to defense contractors. It's not fun to trash these programs. (I grew up
adoring the Space Shuttle and the ISs.) But over time, I've realized it's
necessary. We cannot correct failures we refuse to recognize.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station#Co...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station#Cost)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_International_Space_St...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_International_Space_Station_expeditions)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program)

[4]
[https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm](https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm)

[5]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program#Mission_summary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program#Mission_summary)

[6] Keep in mind the degree to which I'm putting my thumb on the scale in the
ISS's favor. We're counting the Apollo program's launch costs but not the
Space Shuttles. We're including, in $2.8 million per day figure, everyone's
crew member hours but only NASA's costs.

[7] I am not (yet) in favor of de-orbiting the ISS. Sunk costs are sunk.
Looking forward, there is probably something useful to be done with the beast.

~~~
msl
> We could have replicated the time spent on the ISS with a series of Apollo
> programs

I doubt an Apollo CSM [1] could support astronauts for a full year (although
Mir could [2]). It has proven very handy to have a space station within reach
of resupply missions and with enough space to house some gym equipment and a
whole bunch of medical equipment. You might also have trouble finding people
willing to spend much time beyond the Van Allen radiation belts [3] in an
Apollo era space craft [4].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Command/Service_Module](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Command/Service_Module)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_EO-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_EO-3)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TM-18](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TM-18)

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belt)

[4]
[https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/news/stereo_astron...](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/news/stereo_astronauts.html)

------
makkesk8
Man next to one of the boosters:
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DVYYekSWAAEHpTa.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DVYYekSWAAEHpTa.jpg)

That's nuts.

~~~
dobecker
they looked so tiny on the video stream:
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DVYWR2IUQAAutMB.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DVYWR2IUQAAutMB.jpg)

~~~
mcv
I was also surprised that the Falcon Heavy didn't look all that big, really.
Until I saw people next to a booster. Scale is hard.

------
alangibson
Yet another incredible show from SpaceX. At this point, if they said they were
going to build a football stadium on Europa, my only question would be when
does it open.

But I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that they can launch a massive
rocket on the first try and land (at least) 2 cores, but the camera STILL cuts
out on the drone ship.

~~~
pikchurn
I don't find that surprising. The communication link back is presumably by
satellite since it is in the middle of the ocean, and probably a directional
antenna because of the high bandwidth. You have any good suggestions for
having a reliable connection via directional antenna on a flimsy barge that a
rocket is landing on in this middle of the choppy north Atlantic?

~~~
niftich
Tow a cable from the barge to a nearby ship, buoy, or platform on which the
antenna sits, that's out of range of the vibrations and faces a different
direction?

~~~
gervase
I believe they are required as part of FAA regulations to ensure that no
manned craft are within 15 miles of the landing zone? Something like that, at
least, which would complicate a tether-based approach.

~~~
larkeith
I think the suggestion was a separate but tethered unmanned platform, which
would presumably have less vibrations. I would imagine it's just not cost-
efficient for SpaceX, as they'll be able to recover the footage later
regardless.

~~~
apaprocki
Who needs a tether? Ubiquiti makes gear capable of slinging 400+ Mbps over
25km in a straight line. For about $1500 they should be able to shove the
"last mile" to a ship outside of the exclusion zone and put the sat uplink on
the ship.

[https://www.ubnt.com/airmax/powerbeam-ac-
iso/](https://www.ubnt.com/airmax/powerbeam-ac-iso/)

~~~
niftich
If you're losing connection due to a shaking radio dish, as in the original
case, a different shaking radio dish is hardly a compelling solution.

~~~
apaprocki
They have grid antennas with a slightly wider beam, or maybe a sector style
with 20-30 degrees could be used. I just think it's easier to engineer a
workable ship-to-ship stabilized radio solution rather than deal with the
ship-to-sat dish which probably has much tighter tolerances.

------
dmix
Reposting my comment from the other thread:

Someone noticed there was a camera feed on the mission control wall that shows
the Center Core's drone ship, after the smoke clears no ship can be seen:
[https://twitter.com/Darkphibre/status/960990105581240321](https://twitter.com/Darkphibre/status/960990105581240321)

9:00 into the feed, it's likely the core either missed or failed to land
properly. Although the screen is partially out of view. So this is still
speculative.

------
indescions_2018
Congrats! To everyone at SpaceX Mission Control, NASA, and the 45th Space
Wing. You are inspiring the next generation of astronauts and explorers!

At approx t-minus four minutes and counting. Elon Musk tweeted the "Holy Mouse
Click" had returned "true". That moment when control is transferred to the
onboard modules. And the Autonomous Flight Safety System takes control.

Its truly awesome to see that silky smooth burn. that perfect parabolic arc.
And think upon the _twenty-seven_ Merlin engines all firing in synchrony.
Equipped with an intelligent decision making capability. And what the
implications might be for future human spaceflight.

Here is an ancient link. But back around the mid-noughties. NASA published
some details on the architecture of an AFSS:

An Autonomous Flight Safety System

[https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/200800...](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20080044860.pdf)

Considering the Falcon Heavy includes reusable side boosters and central
shaft. The complexity multiplies. As an example, take a peek at an
implementation for expendable missions. that still use ground or satellite
tracking and control.

Range Safety Algorithm Software Module for an Autonomous Flight Safety System

[https://software.nasa.gov/software/GSC-15594-1](https://software.nasa.gov/software/GSC-15594-1)

Darpa contributed tool for low level verification of onboard AFSS software.

SeaHorn: A fully automated analysis framework for LLVM-based languages

[http://seahorn.github.io/](http://seahorn.github.io/)

And of course, once your computers make it into space. They will need a place
to store all the mountains of data generated ;)

SpaceBelt: space-based cloud storage network

[http://spacebelt.com/](http://spacebelt.com/)

------
ph0rque
Watching the launch with my daughter: "Daddy look! It's two daughter rockets
helping the mommy rocket!"

~~~
jacquesm
That's so sweet.

------
crsv
It was so captivating to watch the launch production. Just watching this test
launch you can see how SpaceX is recapturing the hearts and minds of the world
and generating the same level of wonder that NASA did in it's hay-day. It's a
proud day in annals of mankind and engineering. What an absolute feat.
Congratulations to everyone on the team at SpaceX.

------
pulkitanand
They lost the center core:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B_tWbjFIGI&t=2307](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B_tWbjFIGI&t=2307)

But 2/3 is impressive! Seeing the simultaneous landings had me in tears!

~~~
webXL
Was there anything special about the center core other than boosting longer
and needing to land out at sea? Seems like they've landed plenty out at sea,
but not while landing two on land.

I thought this was impressive: "With a total of 27 first-stage engines, Falcon
Heavy has engine-out capability that no other launch vehicle can match—under
most payload scenarios, it can sustain more than one unplanned engine shutdown
at any point in flight and still successfully complete its mission."
[http://www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy](http://www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy)

~~~
phpnode
The centre core is significantly strengthened to cope with the additional load
from the side boosters. It also has slightly different aerodynamic properties
because of the fixed struts that hold the boosters in place. Either of these
could have affected the landing. They'll collect data and fix it.

~~~
jpgvm
It ran out of fuel. There was enough to relight the centre engine but not the
3 outer engines required to complete the landing.

~~~
GraemeL
It didn't actually run out of fuel. It didn't have enough of the hypergolic
mix used to ignite the engines (triethylaluminium & triethylborane that causes
the green flash sometimes seen at ignition) and only one of the three engines
needed for the landing burn re-lit.

------
runesoerensen
_" Third burn successful. Exceeded Mars orbit and kept going to the Asteroid
Belt."_

[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/961083704230674438](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/961083704230674438)

~~~
TeMPOraL
Damnit Elon!

But I guess that's one way of saying he had ∆v to spare...

------
dopamean
That was incredible. Watching the double landing of the boosters I couldn't
help but feel like we live in the future. It was actually a little emotional.

~~~
pc2g4d
That was thrilling. An incredible accomplishment. The first time in my life I
thought I had an inkling of what it had been like to watch the Moon landings.

------
blackrock
Did they need to modify the Tesla to make it vacuum worthy?

Like, remove any fluids, remove any parts that might explode in the hot or
cold of space, deflate the tires, etc.

Note: I'm more interested in a scientific answer, as opposed to casual
conjectures. Preferably from an engineer knowledgeable of such things. And
specifically, the materials sciences aspect of how materials will survive in a
vacuum.

~~~
CmdrKrool
Elon says, albeit casually, here in the press conference at 5m36s:
[https://youtu.be/sytrrdOPYzA?t=5m36s](https://youtu.be/sytrrdOPYzA?t=5m36s)

"We didn't really test any of those materials [...] it's just literally a
normal car in space"

~~~
jotm
It would be pretty cool if they retrieve it later, replace the batteries...
and it still works :D

~~~
k_lander
i think its expected to next swing past earth in 2030

------
kbyatnal
Saw this on their careers page right after the landing. Looks like it worked!

[https://i.imgur.com/noM0glO.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/noM0glO.jpg)

~~~
callesgg
To bad that it is only for americans. Due to some sort of US regulation.

~~~
Klathmon
That's not really their call because of ITAR.

~~~
vincentkriek
ITAR is not limited to just Americans. I work with ITAR materials and am not
an American (working in Europe)

~~~
Klathmon
Then you might be fine, they don't limit it to americans arbitrarily (hell,
Musk himself wasn't born in the US!), but limit it to those that are allowed
under ITAR.

The wording on their job postings is:

>To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant
must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected
individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the
required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

------
yohann305
It seems SpaceX has even perfected its tests to the point that their
simulations are doing an amazing job at predicting real life situations. Great
job on spaceX. Today History was made, and the new generation of children is
inspired to choose space-focused careers

~~~
astronautjones
Even the modeled exhaust in the rendering looked almost identical to reality.
Top minds.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Yes, there were two or three moments during the livestream when my mind
literally said "nah, they spliced in that promo video from few days ago; this
can't be real".

------
symlinkk
Fuck Snapchat filters, fuck another JavaScript framework being released, fuck
Google releasing another chat app, fuck the next iPhone having wireless
charging.

This is innovation. This is the future. This, and Tesla, are the biggest
technological breakthroughs since the iPhone.

~~~
dingo_bat
Comparing Falcon heavy to iphone is slightly insulting IMO.

------
noonespecial
Remembered watching an old Star Trek film where the Cochrane character
wouldn't launch without playing "Magic Carpet Ride" on the way up and thinking
that space travel could never ever be so glib...

Well played Mr. Musk. Well Played.

~~~
alangibson
After the rocket took off, I told my wife that Elon Musk is our Zephram
Cochrane. She looked at me like I was a 40 year old virgin.

------
globuous
Absolutely amazing. Just watched it live, gave me goosebumps. Although:

"SpaceX also attempted a recovery of all three of the first stage boosters it
used during the launch. It has recovered two of those thus far, and we’re
waiting to hear back from SpaceX on the official status of the final, third
booster, which was landing at sea."

~~~
TeMPOraL
Yes! Just that one piece of information short of calling it _perfect_. Can't
wait 'till we know what happened to the center stage!

------
outworlder
Double landing of _reused_ boosters. No matter how you slice it, it's quite a
feat.

------
muterad_murilax
Is the Tesla car and it's space suit-wearing driver a reference to the intro
from the 1981 film Heavy Metal?

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWMPe3wF9jQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWMPe3wF9jQ)

~~~
vpribish
It's a pretty inescapable suspicion :)

------
ChuckMcM
One of those "this must be the future" moments for sure. I'm really amazed
that there is a Tesla Roadster on its way to Mars at this point. That blows my
mind.

------
zouhair
Devil's advocate, here.

Am I the only one that find it quite disturbing that a private corporation
taking over more public space?

In the long run this stuff will bite humanity at large in the butt.

~~~
Stratoscope
For another way to look at it, consider how quickly commercial airline travel
became available after the Wright Brothers' first flight.

Compare that with how long it's been since Yuri Gagarin's first flight, and
we're just now getting to where we can imagine passenger flights to space in
the next few years.

Of course aviation may be easier than spaceflight, but I think a large part of
the difference is that aviation was developed by companies trying to make a
buck, while spaceflight until recently was dominated by governments who were
in it for political purposes.

Myself, I'll take the faster progress you get from the profit motive.

I truly believe that if spaceflight had developed under private enterprise
like aviation did, you and I would have been able to buy tickets years ago.

------
arekkas
Man, the lift off, separation, landing, and don't panic sugared with Bowie.
How great was it to witness that?

------
jagger27
Does anyone have a "top-down" view of the Roadster's (planned) orbit? I've
read that it's on a Hohmann transfer towards Mars's orbital neighbourhood but
haven't seen a diagram.

~~~
wolf550e
[https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c?t=1357](https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c?t=1357)

~~~
jagger27
Ah thank you! I missed that. Here's a screenshot

[https://i.imgur.com/LviKKdg.png](https://i.imgur.com/LviKKdg.png)

------
fastbeef
Wow. I can’t recall the last time I got this emotional from watching something
on TV. Good thing my wife is asleep, cause I’m tear-eyed over two rockets
touching down at the same time...

------
neilprosser
It got a little dusty in my house when those two boosters landed. I think
someone was cutting onions too.

------
ekrebs
Watching those boosters land side-by-side made me question my reality.
Beautiful.

------
runesoerensen
_" Update February 6th, 5:10 PM ET: This post has been updated to reflect that
the center core did not land on the autonomous ship as intended."_

[https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/16971200/spacex-falcon-
hea...](https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/16971200/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-
success-roadster-orbit-elon-musk)

------
aaron-lebo
What's the difference in how SpaceX is run vs Musk's other companies? It seems
to succeed doing the hardest things whereas the others have struggled to meet
their goals.

Would Musk focusing only on it make any difference?

edit: This is not a complaint, just a question, why the downvotes? I'm used to
getting downvoted for no reason, but this is basic a question, with great
answers. Come on HN! We can't ask questions?

~~~
mi100hael
NYTimes article mentioned their initial target for a heavy rocket launch was
2013 due to being "naive." Safe to say SpaceX isn't all that different from
Tesla or Solar City in that regard.

~~~
pythonaut_16
I think this is a big point. SpaceX has a solid business just with their
Falcon 9 rockets. Delays to the Falcon Heavy really only impact them for
payloads that require the bigger rocket and their overall R&D costs.

Landing and reusing the Falcon 9 cores is probably a much bigger benefit to
their bottom line overall.

Tesla on the other hand has to be able to deliver tons of reliable cars to
people all over the place in a competitive market. Delays to the Model 3 mean
they're burning money they can't afford to lose while their competitors are
rapidly catching up to them.

While SpaceX could continue their successful Falcon 9 launches during the 5
year delay on Falcon Heavy, Tesla will likely be gone in 5 years if Model 3
delays are even close to that long.

------
ninjamayo
And I have to deploy a few web services tomorrow, woohoo... Elon has created a
vision for generations to come, that is why today is so historic.

------
vvanders
Starman cam is currently streaming live as it circles the earth:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M)

------
runesoerensen
Post-launch press conference live stream:
[http://abcnews.go.com/live/video/special-
live-3](http://abcnews.go.com/live/video/special-live-3) /
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KORTP545vAc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KORTP545vAc)

------
stouset
I feel like I must be crazy, but did anyone else notice that the two videos
from the pair of boosters seemed like they were cloned from the viewpoint of a
single booster?

I don't mean they look similar. I mean they look like they came from the _same
video feed_. When completing the touchdown, they both seem to land at the same
pad -- you can see the flame of the other booster and the pad the other
booster is landing at in both videos, except they aren't rotated 180 degrees
from one-another because the rest of the landscape is identical. Also, watch
the moment when the boosters do their initial burn to slow down from freefall.
The flames in both videos look virtually identical.

Here's a few samples: [https://imgur.com/a/Xpbu8](https://imgur.com/a/Xpbu8)

Did they acknowledge that the videos weren't actually taken from both rockets
during the stream and I just missed it? Or is there some other explanation?

~~~
gizmo
Yeah, they accidentally used the same stream twice. Easy mistake to make.

~~~
stouset
Ah! That explains it.

------
chkte
On the one hand this is super exciting, I even cried. On the other hand, it
makes me feel miserable: am I wasting my life? What have I done? Meanwhile
Elon is sending reusable rockets to the space.

~~~
agildehaus
You and all (7.442 billion - 1) of the rest of us buddy.

~~~
jvzr
I'd count the 6 thousand employees in the same boat, as Musk's vision could
not be achieved without their help

~~~
agildehaus
No doubt.

------
scientician
Cried proud human tears today.

Even if the droneship didn't work out...

------
dingo_bat
It's such a shame that so many people with Elon kind of money aren't doing
anything to transform us into a spacefaring species. Why doesn't apple have a
mars program? What the fuck are people doing with all the money?

Awesome work by spacex. They are peerless, except if you want to count massive
superpower governments as peers.

~~~
joering2
> It's such a shame that so many people with Elon kind of money aren't doing
> anything to transform us into a spacefaring species.

"Elon kind of money?"

Heard of government subsidies?

[https://ideapod.com/elon-musks-business-empire-
fueled-4-9-bi...](https://ideapod.com/elon-musks-business-empire-
fueled-4-9-billion-government-subsidies-businesses-self-sustainable/)

Edit: not taking sides and adding my subjective point to the article; just
merely stating fact that Mr. Musk projects are in large part government-
funded.

~~~
ricardobeat
Pardon my French, but that’s a load of bullshit in this context. SpaceX is
privately funded and only receives money from the government from the launch
contracts it sells.

That amount is for Tesla and SolarCity combined. To put things into
perspective, GM received a $50B bailout, Ford got almost $6B for “energy-
efficient” cars, as did Nissan with $1.6B.

Finally, almost all of those are loans, tax credits and incentives, not money
'out of pocket'. The goal is always to generate more wealth than was “spent”.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Also, generally, WTF. Tesla - unlike most others - pays back its government
loans on time, in full, with interest. They're using this money the way it was
meant to be used.

------
dancek
The official YouTube live broadcast video by SpaceX is at:
[https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c](https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c)

------
dudus
Can someone explain to me why are we sending a Tesla to Mars? I mean other
than shits and giggles, is there any value in having it there? I assume
putting stuff in the space is expensive and I wonder if that effort couldn't
have gone to something more useful like a robot to look for water or whatever.

~~~
marvin
This was a demonstration launch, so no paying customer. The alternatives are
(1) sending a rock or (2) spending months and millions of dollars designing a
spacecraft capable of doing something useful. Option 2 is out of the question,
option 1 is boring :)

------
jimnotgym
That was fabulous. My son sat cheering in his space suit all the way until the
live feed cut off. Can we turn a corner as a species now and look towards
exploration again?

------
LewYard
>> [...] the rocket’s payload [...] will pass through the Van Allen belt — a
zone of charged particles and extreme radiation surrounding Earth. Assuming it
makes it through that radioactive beatdown [...]

What can happen ? Did a payload already exploded passing through the Van Allen
belt ? Are batteries a problem ?

~~~
alkonaut
I guess the worse that can happen is that computer chips and similar (camera
sensors etc) are damaged?

Can’t see what would make it not “make it through” but I could see how we
might never I find out.

~~~
LewYard
Oh okay. And last Elon's tweet says that the last stage still has a burn to do
after the belt. So if the chips are damage it may be impossible to do the
burn.

[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/960988527159795712](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/960988527159795712)

~~~
soneil
As I understand it, this is the whole reason for this coasting. They're
chilling out in the van allen belt specifically to tick off that box.

------
chx
In 2016, Ford spent 2.34 billion U.S. dollars on advertising in U.S. media.
Total Tesla ad budget: 0. Total investment in SpaceX: 1.6 billion U.S.
dollars.

~~~
josefresco
[https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/7vt7ru/tesla_spends_0...](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/7vt7ru/tesla_spends_0_per_year_on_advertising_today/dtv5fsa/)

~~~
chx
> That includes things like launch parties. They don't do traditional
> advertising.

~~~
josefresco
Advertising is advertising - doesn't need to be "traditional" \- even if
that's the metric ... who cares? They're a unicorn, plenty of companies have
benefited (temporarily) from unabashed media excitement. Comparisons like this
are silly.

~~~
chx
Temporarily. You mean a decade is temporary?

------
debt
Elon over there landing rockets on drone ships, I'm over here finishing a new
photo app.

Elon over there going to Mars, I can't even get this dang app to build.

Might be time to move....

[http://www.spacex.com/careers](http://www.spacex.com/careers)

~~~
anvandare
But even to be a dishwasher, which I wouldn't mind:

>To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant
must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected
individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the
required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

I mean, I understand, but it still puts a damper on the "Team Humanity" vibe.
:/ Same as when the SpaceX team were chanting "U!S!A!" at one of the Falcon
launches.

(Hope this doesn't come across as petty.)

~~~
adventured
Consider that the SpaceX team can simultaneously be team USA and team
humanity. They are after all exactly that.

People outside the US want to feel part of the accomplishment, which is
understandable as there are only a few nations that are likely to ever have
the resources to do something like this. So the USA cheering feels
exclusionary, naturally. I chalk it up to them being proud of the immense work
they've done to get the US back into space properly again.

------
toephu2
This is nothing short of amazing, but what also amazes me is the fact that 45
years ago...humans were also able to launch a payload larger than today's into
orbit (Saturn V moon rocket)...that's crazy if you think about it...45 years
ago?!

~~~
jacquesm
That had a whole nation funding it, and the space race was on meaning it was a
prestige thing rather than a practical thing.

------
joering2
Seeing two falcons landing felt to me like seeing first STS spaceship taking
off all the way from Space Canaveral. Truly amazing! I cannot wait to see a
version where 16 of them are landing... simultaneously! (its just a dream)

Great job Elon and team SpaceX!

------
yowlingcat
Like a lot of other folks on here and probably in history, as a kid, I wanted
to be an astronaut when I grew up. It's hard to put into words the feelings I
experienced while watching the video, and especially the landing. For all the
things going on in the world (and even in my own career writing line of
business software) that make me nothing but exasperated, these moments
rekindle my hope and all that sense of wonderment I used to feel every moment
and every day. I'm excited to see what comes next.

------
davidw
Wow, beautiful and moving to see people building wonderful things. Have been
focused on politics for a while and it's really a breath of fresh air. Made my
day!

------
franzb
Absolutely amazing, we watched science-fiction today.

Anyone knows what happened to the core booster?

~~~
pjscott
Elon Musk just confirmed in a press conference that the third core was lost;
two of the engines that should have slowed it down failed to re-ignite and it
came in too fast. I predict either success or a more interesting failure on
the next flight.

------
csallen
There was a strange part of the video near the end where they show the car
floating through space, and suddenly a background image pops in for a second:
[https://imgur.com/a/ZyVqK](https://imgur.com/a/ZyVqK)

Any idea what that was?

EDIT: I think it's a replay of the capsule opening that initially contained
the car, just spliced in at a weird part of the video.

~~~
Deathmax
They were looping the fairing deploy. The "background image" you see is the
inside of the fairing: [https://www.instagram.com/p/Be3m_LNgOYY/?taken-
by=elonmusk](https://www.instagram.com/p/Be3m_LNgOYY/?taken-by=elonmusk)

------
ChuckMcM
Raises some interesting secondary questions; Did the starman dummy contain
telemetry? At lift off? Now? If I were SpaceX this is a good way to test your
spacesuit, actually in space, if you instrument the dummy its on. Pressure
sensors, temperature sensors, G sensors.

Do they turn off the camera if its about to fly by something that would rather
not be seen?

~~~
paragraft
Elon said in the press conference afterward it was just a mannequin in the
suit, no instrumentation.

------
daniel-wer
Regarding the center core, if you switch to the second stream (mission
control) and go to 38:30, you can hear "We have lost the center core" \- could
be referring to the signal though.
[https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c?t=38m26s](https://youtu.be/wbSwFU6tY1c?t=38m26s)

------
aresant
Check 25:30 for one of the most surreal moments I've ever witnessed - they
blow the top, start playing Space Man, and send the Tesla into orbit - >
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8wxV-
lUsZg&t=25m30s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8wxV-lUsZg&t=25m30s)

------
Animats
It's so Kerbal Space Program. First Space-X built the Falcon 1, with one
Merlin engine. Then the Falcon 9, with 9 Merlin engines in a circle with one
in the center. Then the Falcon Heavy, with three Falcon 9 boosters side by
side. Next maybe a bigger Falcon Heavy, with five Falcon 9 boosters in an X
pattern.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Yup. Sad they abandoned asparagus staging (AKA. fuel crossfeed), though. That
would be Full Kerbal.

~~~
le-mark
In the press conference after FH launch, Musk mentioned a "Super" heavy with
four side boosters, yowza!

------
astronautjones
"ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in space"

------
technics256
In engineering terms, how does this compare to the most powerful rocket ever
made, the Saturn V?

~~~
Diederich
Heavy in full reusable can lift 140,000 pounds to low earth orbit. The Saturn
V at its best lifted 310,000 pounds.

So Heavy is about 1/2 as lift capable...at a _tiny fraction_ of the $/kg.

------
weej
Unbelievable. The simultaneous booster landings were incredibly impressive
feat. Outstanding launch and spectacular landings!

Screen shots from live feed:
[https://imgur.com/a/gh410](https://imgur.com/a/gh410)

~~~
jacquesm
Hard to pick favorites from those.

~~~
weej
I know. I'm rotating my desktop.

------
sytelus
Given the excitement, I have to wonder what it would have been like to watch
Saturn V takeoff. It still remains the largest most powerful (and most
expensive) rocket ever built. Hats off to the previous generation.

~~~
TeMPOraL
We'll see when ESA or SpaceX decides to launch a Moon mission. HN should still
be around then.

------
tambourine_man
We are living in an 80's SciFi movie. This shots are amazing, I would never
have believed:

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

------
mstank
Live views of the Star Man from space --
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M)

------
mpweiher
USA Today reports the center stage landed

"The core stage, meanwhile, burned slightly longer before separating from the
upper stage, performed a flip maneuver and landed on SpaceX's Of Course I
Still Love You drone ship."

Not sure it's true.

[https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-
now/2018/02/06/sp...](https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-
now/2018/02/06/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch/310431002/)

------
iliis
live view of Starman and his car:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M)

------
matt4077
Live view of Starman:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M)

------
pestrov
So what about the core?

~~~
MBCook
Is the core designed to be reusable or is that a one-time-use part?

~~~
alexdumitru
The core was supposed to land on the barge, but the video footage got
disconnected and they said they don't know what happened to it yet.

~~~
MBCook
Oh, perhaps I have the name wrong. I meant the part connected to the payload
with the Merlin engine designed for vacuum, above the three main rockets (the
center of which must be the core).

~~~
skykooler
It will relight its engine again in about five and a half hours to depart
Earth orbit for interplanetary space.

~~~
MBCook
Thanks.

------
spacexyz
For future nostalgia: [https://teespring.com/find-center-
core](https://teespring.com/find-center-core)

------
MBCook
So the car is supposed to be in an Earth-Mars orbit. It it stable or is it
designed to fall to earth at some point soon (say one or two orbits)?

~~~
skykooler
According to SpaceX, the orbit could potentially last for a billion years if
the timings work out.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
Source? I was poking around for the orbit's parameters last night...

~~~
skykooler
[https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/05/spacex-falcon-heavy-
launch-a...](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/05/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-at-
the-end-of-january-elon-musk-says.html)

------
redwood
I don't get how we're seeing the views behind the car
([https://cdn.teslarati.com/wp-
content/uploads/2017/12/Roadste...](https://cdn.teslarati.com/wp-
content/uploads/2017/12/Roadster-Falcon-Heavy-full-Elon-Muskjpg-3.jpg)) -- is
it a green screen? special effects? something else?

~~~
tbabb
The faring (the cover that you see in that photo) detaches and falls back to
Earth. The car is exposed and floating in space.

~~~
redwood
Thank you (wow) - just saw an animation and had that a ha moment...

------
yujeng
Wonderful feat, SpaceX! Congratulations!

But I have this one observation on watching the launch, and landing and I hope
someone can explain the discrepancy to me:

How come the two boosters when they stick-landed have different colors than
when they were launched - so soon? I mean, they were all real shinny white
when blasting upwards from the launch pad. Are those the same ones that stick-
landed to perfectly?

------
perseusprime11
What does this launch mean for humans? Does this mean we can send humans to
Mars on the next mission? Is there step by step plan anywhere?

~~~
InclinedPlane
This is kind of a "big deal" but on the other hand it's also just an
intermediate step. The really cool thing here is that this brings another
contender into the heavy lift launch market, which has traditionally been an
incredibly small space, especially recently (with NRO launches dominating).
More than that, it dramatically reshapes the cost structure in that market. If
you want a Delta IV Heavy launch normally you're looking at spending around a
billion dollars, and generally the only customers who could even have the
option to use that vehicle would be the US government anyway. So, of course,
that means it's been a very restrictive field.

Falcon Heavy is, on the other hand, nominally a $90 million launch cost.
That's cheaper than the typical launch cost for a Falcon 9, Atlas V, or Ariane
5 class vehicle, so that's _crazy_ cheap. A lot of that is down to the fact
that 90% of the hardware cost of the Falcon Heavy stack comes from reusable
rocket stages (the 3 main cores). On top of that, the Falcon Heavy side
boosters are just regular Falcon 9 cores, so as SpaceX gets better at reusing
Falcon 9 rockets it'll also become easier to launch Falcon Heavy rockets
because there will just always be a stack of appropriate components sitting
around in inventory ready to go. Meaning that the potential flight rate on
Heavy launches could be quite high. The Delta IV Heavy launches maybe around
once every year or every other year or so. The Falcon Heavy could potentially
fly many times per year.

Together that's kind of a "big deal". It'll crack open the heavy lift market
to a lot of people who previously lacked the means or the access to launch big
payloads. If launching 20 tonnes to LEO is something that costs 10 figures and
happens literally less often than every blue moon then you tend to only launch
things like multi-billion dollar spy satellites. But if launching _much more_
than that mass costs less than a traditional comsat launch and can happen
every other month or perhaps more often if there's the demand, then you're
going to get a lot of folks coming out of the woodwork to take advantage of
that capability (and, as well, that'll still include NRO and US national
defense folks as well, they won't miss out either).

So, what are some things that become more possible with Falcon Heavy?

* Space station components. After the Shuttle program ended there was much less capacity for launching station components, it was restricted to small bits and pieces (a docking adapter here, a small inflatable module there) and Russian components launched via Proton. With Falcon Heavy in the mix it becomes more practical to launch new space stations and new station components. So that's more of an option now.

* Deep space missions. Falcon Heavy is capable of launching reasonable payloads on interplanetary trajectories to the outer planets. So that means it could make new missions to asteroids, comets, the gas and ice giant planets (or their moons), as well as KBOs and TNOs much more cost effective. NASA, ESA, etc. could look to using Falcon Heavy for those sorts of missions in the near future. It also makes things like "ordinary" Mars rover missions cheaper, of course, and allows them to be larger and more capable.

* Space telescopes. Launching big space telescopes like Hubble and its successors will become much cheaper. So instead of having just one or two or even a handful of big top tier observatory class space telescopes we could have many of them.

* Crewed interplanetary missions. In theory you could do something like a crewed cislunar mission similar to Apollo 8 using a single Falcon Heavy launch. More realistically if you wanted to do a "proper" interplanetary mission you'd assemble something in low Earth orbit. You'd put up separate boost stages as well as the crewed spacecraft component and the return vehicle on separate flights and bring them together then set off somewhere. If you're, say, NASA and you have a paltry $2 billion or something to pull off a crewed mission to an asteroid, perhaps, then being able to buy a half-dozen Falcon Heavy flights and put up a crap-ton of payload into LEO with only a quarter of your budget is _hugely_ advantageous.

* And, of course, all the standard stuff like spysats and big national defense payloads. This isn't such a huge deal for "the future" but it'll be a substantial revenue stream for SpaceX.

As for sending humans to Mars, SpaceX won't be using Falcon Heavy for that.
They have a next generation launch architecture planned that is more or less
specifically designed for mars colonization (the BFR/BFS). That system will be
much larger and able to put about 150 tonnes into LEO in a single (reusable)
launch. It'll be fully reusable, including the 2nd stage (the BFS). It'll use
LOX/Methane instead of LOX/Kerosene because of the superior performance,
significantly improved longevity of engine components (less soot and coking in
piping) to enhance reusability, and compatability with a Mars exploration
architecture that includes utilization of the Martian atmosphere to produce
propellant for return trips (which is actually surprisingly easy). They will
begin the first stages of manufacturing that rocket sometime this year but it
will be a few years before it even has a test flight.

~~~
perseusprime11
Thanks. You should put this up on Medium. Tons of great info that others can
benefit.

------
clon
Is there cause for concern that the payload is spinning along what looks like
roughly it's normal axis. Can we assume that they equipped it with some sort
of means for attitude control?

Edit: referring to the Starman live feed:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M)

~~~
goodcanadian
Spacecraft are commonly spin stabilized in order to keep them from tumbling.
The same reason that rifles spin bullets or quarterbacks throw spirals,
really.

And yes, it will have attitude control in order to ensure that the three burns
(two complete, interplanetary insertion to come) all happen in the correct
orientation

~~~
TeMPOraL
Yup. You could actually spot attitude control firing on the Starman feed at
some point.

------
JustAnotherPat
Amazing to see. Hard to imagine if not for Musk, we'd be stuck with ULA
garbage and a realistic Mars tripped planned for 2050+

------
adt2bt
And both boosters landed simultaneously!

That was seriously impressive to watch. Congratulations to all the SpaceX
engineers who made this a reality.

------
typicalbender
Sounds like they lost the center core (might just mean the signal its not
clear), hell of a showing though the team should be really proud of the
accomplishment.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B_tWbjFIGI&feature=youtu.be...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B_tWbjFIGI&feature=youtu.be&t=2304)

~~~
callesgg
"We lost the centre core" at 38m27s
[https://youtu.be/-B_tWbjFIGI?t=38m27s](https://youtu.be/-B_tWbjFIGI?t=38m27s)

------
irln
The booster landings were incredible, however, the initial shot of it clearing
the pad looked like a scifi movie intro.

------
snake117
Seeing both boosters land side-by-side was absolutely an epic moment. Showing
Star Man in the Tesla Roadster with the text displaying "Don't Panic" was just
amazing. Very grateful that SpaceX allows us to join in on the excitement. I
can't wait to see what comes next!

------
LoSboccacc
I wonder for how long we're going to get images from that tesla. there's no
power source so the stream will end, but it does sit next some very huge
batteries so let's hope it's going to last and we'll be able to check with the
spaceman every now and then!

~~~
tromp
Next test flight will put a Tesla supercharger in the same orbit...

~~~
cududa
By 2020 the super charger will have an arm to dock with the Tesla and recharge
it

------
pilom
The stream cut out before they were able to report on the main engine
recovery. Anyone have more info?

------
sir-alien
“ For Sale. Tesla Roadstar, cherry red. One owner. Covered 92 million miles.
Buyer to collect. ”

~~~
simosx
" Quick. May fade to white. "

------
everdev
Way to make space fun again :)

Love that pic of the dummy astronaut in the Tesla looking back at Earth.

------
johnvega
Been watching all the previous launches. This one felt like a special moment
in time.

------
Flemlord
Congratulations to everybody involved! One of my earliest memories is watching
the Challenger launch in my school auditorium. I'm glad my daughters can have
the same experience with a much more inspiring conclusion.

------
woliveirajr
Center core going to Mars?

[https://twitter.com/FalconMainCore/status/960992022575374336](https://twitter.com/FalconMainCore/status/960992022575374336)

~~~
InclinedPlane
Vaguely. In reality it's going to an orbit that will cross Mars' orbit, but it
won't actually be particularly near Mars for a very long time. It's a good
proof of concept that they could launch something to Mars with this vehicle
though.

------
dis-sys
Leaders of the Chinese/Russian/European space programs should learn something
from such launches. The message is loud and clear - your junks are no longer
economically feasible for space missions.

------
drakonka
That was beautiful to watch, especially the landing of the side boosters.

------
abledon
A Q & A is going on right now with Elon:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KORTP545vAc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KORTP545vAc)

------
rl3
Official photos from today's mission:

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacex/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacex/)

------
Axsuul
It's impressive they got it on the first try. Their software
models/simulations must have played a huge role in this, aside from other
processes and engineering gotchas.

------
adventured
Musk just posted this live feed link of Starman:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M)

------
BurningFrog
What's your opinion:

Were the two falcons landing at the same moment synchronized to look good for
the cameras, or was it just how it happened because they travelled together?

~~~
sah2ed
This flight profile clearly shows they were scheduled to travel and land
together.

[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/960915618865274880](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/960915618865274880)

------
slfnflctd
I stopped everything and set aside time to sit and watch the whole thing. It
was like seeing magic made real, only better, rapturous. Very emotional
launch.

------
lisper
That was amazing. But... what happened to the core?

~~~
lisper
[https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/06/spacex-landed-two-of-
its-t...](https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/06/spacex-landed-two-of-its-three-
falcon-heavy-first-stage-boosters/)

:-(

Still a tremendous accomplishment.

------
perilunar
"There's a starman waiting in the sky He's told us not to blow it Cause he
knows it's all worthwhile"

------
jonkiddy
A truly historic moment. Well done SpaceX!

------
ptrincr
That was really impressive. Does anyone know what happened to the core? Seemed
to lose feed to the drone ship.

------
shyrka
Absolutely outstanding! Incredible footage watching the simultaneous landings!
Landmark achievement

------
crocal
I am stuck in the worst traffic jam in Paris since 10 years. Bah. Who cares?
:D That was insane!

~~~
lprd
How about dat snow tho? Hope you made it home safe! :)

------
hnnsj
This makes me excited to be human again. I need to do something more
meaningful with my life.

------
omot
I think it's worth noting that NASA wasn't the one to accomplish this, it was
a private company. It makes me hopeful that there might be a real possibility
of huge infrastructure development by private companies, because it seems like
the government is unable to organize itself to accomplish huge infra projects
like in the past.

------
j45
Starman in a convertible made me smile like a little boy. Hope it lives on as
b-roll

------
gradyj
Absolutely insane. I had goosebumps throughout the launch. Well done SpaceX

------
staunch
Fuck yes! Thank you everyone that worked on this and thank you Elon Musk!

------
halamadrid
What an amazing feat! Well done SpaceX. Hope the core made it too!

------
snissn
Can someone confirm if the tesla roadster is heading to Mars?

------
jacquesm
That's going to be one very hard to overtake Tesla.

~~~
mcv
My son has been very interested in fast cars lately, so this morning I asked
him what the fastest car was, and corrected him. Then we watched the launch
together.

------
m3kw9
What age we live in, that live video is understated

------
Shivetya
the coolest part to me is watching both boosters touch down in sight of each
other at the same time. that was science fiction worthy

------
ddp
A wonderful inspiring art project, well done!

------
alexdumitru
I hope the main core landed successfully too.

------
gordon_freeman
still waiting for CORE to land but ohh boy..was that awesome to see both the
boosters land together at the same time.

------
mspokoiny
Really love SpaceX - 63 tons- this is a lot

------
ASipos
any link to the center core landing video?

~~~
pikchurn
No. Watch SpaceX's twitter feed. It might be a while though.

------
javaes
Impressive! But what happened to the core?

------
goshx
This is an amazing day for all humanity.

------
rainbowmverse
My uber is here, in the final frontier.

------
HenryBemis
You had me at "towell"!

------
Meerax
YES!

------
nik736
Any news on the core?

------
AirKickBay
this is amazing. mars is next

------
mempko
NASA money put to good use.

------
lostplesed
cool

------
ASipos
yes!

------
nafizh
Anybody saw the 'Don't panic' thing on the Tesla? Made me chuckle, they sure
have a sense of humor.

~~~
komali2
I absolutely love that Musk is putting a car into Mars orbit. Assuming mankind
doesn't have an extinction event (or dark ages event), it is extremely likely
we'll populate the solar system over the next millenia. In 200 years, Martian
children can look up in the sky and know that one of the quickly moving
visible satellites is a hilarious, old-Earth car. Depending on how accessible
orbit is from planets over the next couple hundred years, it could very well
be some sort of space station museum.

Or, imagine we hit a dark age and bounce back, and this event is lost to
history. Five hundred years later we manage to get some people to Mars orbit
and they find _a fucking car in a capsule with a little mannequin stuffed into
it_ flinging around the planet at hundreds of kph.

All while it's blasting David Bowie over their radios.

~~~
euphoria83
Is it okay to put unnecessary stuff in the orbits around our or other planets?
Isn't this space trash that can potentially be problematic for future
endeavors? Are we creating problems for ourselves to satisfy our vanity?

~~~
Stratoscope
It's going into a heliocentric orbit, and people will surely be tracking it.

If it gets to be a problem in the future, it will have so much historical
value that someone will launch a mission to go fetch the Roadster and bring it
home to Mars.

~~~
visarga
I'm wondering if they could make it work after retrieval.

~~~
hackthisuk
[https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/24365/can-i-
drive-...](https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/24365/can-i-drive-elon-
musks-tesla-after-its-been-in-space-for-100-years)

------
songzme
delete

~~~
balnaphone
In case you haven't already been acquainted...

THEY'RE MADE OUT OF MEAT by TERRY BISSON

[http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html](http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html)

GREYLORN by KEITH LAUMER

[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23028/23028-h/23028-h.htm](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23028/23028-h/23028-h.htm)

------
daveheq
Did it successfully explode yet?

~~~
desertrider12
Yes, in a carefully controlled way

------
njarboe
Love how the top comment on the successful first launch of the largest rocket
since the Saturn V (with 1337 points at the moment) on a site called "Hacker
News" devolves into a discussion about identity politics. Maybe we need some
kind of variant on Godwin's Rule so that this doesn't happen so predictably.

------
hycaria
It seems I am the only one bothered by putting useless junk into the universe.
I don't even know how it's possible that they were allowed to litter space
just for the sake of it. Like there's not enough human garbage rotating in
orbit. Couldn't they send a small probe or something more useful than a car ?

Also human space travel is just the answer to none of our current and urgent
earthly problems. I don't get why people are so unreasonably hyped about it.

~~~
dewski
You have to send something to test the feasibility of reaching Mars.

------
alistproducer2
I could've done without the constant clapping and screaming on the webcast.
Kinda took away from the experience for me.

~~~
Cshelton
Yeah.. sorry you were inconvenienced by the cheers of the people who built
it...

~~~
alistproducer2
Good for them. There was a good amount of production value in the broadcast.
It seemed an odd creative choice to leave the audience audio feed maxed the
entire time.

------
thanatropism
I like everything about private space exploration except this: when we sent
the Voyager golden record to space, we consulted with the great minds about
which were the important landmarks of our civilisation.

In this model, it's all about idiosyncrasies: the Voyager record had the
Vitruvian Man, this has an astronaut on a sports car and largely-irrelevant
sci-fi stories.

Of course, private space probably means the whole timeline comes faster and
private associations are soon launching Dostoyevski and Pollock too. Still,
this payload is culturally cringeworthy, as much as the sheer engineer
accomplishment must be lauded.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _the Voyager record had the Vitruvian Man, this has an astronaut on a sports
> car and largely-irrelevant sci-fi stories_

They were both done, principally, for fun. If practical value is constrained
to the non-ET, I'll argue for the latter any day. It promotes an electric car;
presents space as a fun--instead of austere--place; and gives everyone a
laugh. Given the times, I think we need a laugh more than sober awe.

