Saturday, February 10, 2018

New Falcon Species Born: With 'Fire & Fury' SpaceX 'Falcon Heavy' Emerges from Massive Exhaust Cloud at Florida Spaceport; Next Stop – The Asteroid Belt: Gallery


New species of ‘Falcon’ born.  With 'Fire & Fury' the SpaceX 'Falcon Heavy' emerges from the massive exhaust cloud of the ‘birth canal’ at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida following Feb. 6, 2018 debut test flight launch.  The payload was the spacesuited ‘Starman’ mannequin buckled into the driver’s seat of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s red Tesla sports car propelled to deep space.  Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com


Ken Kremer  --   SpaceUpClose.com  --   7 Feb 2018


KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – We witnessed the birth of a new ‘Falcon’ species on Tuesday, Feb. 6,  when with 'Fire & Fury' the SpaceX 'Falcon Heavy' triple core rocket emerged for the first time from the massive exhaust cloud of the vehicles birth canal at Launch Complex 39A at Florida’s Spaceport spewing towering mountainous long flames from its rear sparking the journey of ‘Starman’ in a red Tesla sports car to deep space. 

Next Stop – The Asteroid Belt!

The inaugural test flight of the triple stick Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off in spectacular fashion from historic pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Tuesday afternoon at 3:45 p.m. EST (2045 GMT) on Feb. 6 generating the loudest roar to space since the shuttles were retired in July 2011.

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy successfully hurled the space suited mannequin nicknamed 'Starman' and buckled up in the driver’s seat of SpaceX billionaire  CEO Elon Musk’s midnight red Tesla sports car on a deep space journey to Mars and Beyond as the whimsically gimmickry payload for this inaugural demonstration mission for the firm he founded.



Enjoy our wide ranging gallery of photos and videos captured by myself and several space colleagues.

Birth of a Falcon. With 'Fire & Fury' the SpaceX 'Falcon Heavy' emerges from the massive exhaust cloud ’ at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida following Feb. 6, 2018 debut test flight launch.  The payload was the spacesuited ‘Starman’ mannequin buckled into the driver’s seat of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s red Tesla sports car propelled to deep space.  Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com


Birth of a Falcon. With 'Fire & Fury' the SpaceX 'Falcon Heavy' emerges from the massive exhaust cloud ’ at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida following Feb. 6, 2018 debut test flight launch.  The payload was the spacesuited ‘Starman’ mannequin buckled into the driver’s seat of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s red Tesla sports car propelled to deep space.  Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com

Check back again as our ‘SpaceUpClose’ gallery grows!


Maiden SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket blasts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 6, 2017 with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s Tesla sports car as the payload bound for Mars and beyond.  Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com


The triple stick Falcon Heavy is comprised of a trio of Falcon 9 boosters that generate a combined 5 million pounds of liftoff thrust from the ignition of a total of 27 Merlin 1D first stage engines.





The three Falcon include a significantly modified central core, to deal with aerodynamic stresses, that is bolted together to a pair of side-mounted cores with newly developed nose cones mounted in place of payload fairings. 




The two side cores are ‘flight-proven’ boosters that already launched once and were recycled for the Heavy.  They both previously flew as Falcon 9s on the Thaicomm 8 commercial comsat mission and NASA’s Dragon CRS-9 space station resupply mission in May and July 2016 after landing safely back at sea and land respectively on the OCISLY droneship and Landing Zone-1 (LZ-1). 


Maiden SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket blasts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 6, 2017 with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s Tesla sports car as the payload bound for Mars and beyond.  Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com



The triple stick Falcon Heavy is comprised of a trio of Falcon 9 boosters that generate a combined 5 million pounds of liftoff thrust from the ignition of a total of 27 Merlin 1D first stage engines.




Maiden SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket blasts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 6, 2017 with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s Tesla sports car as the payload bound for Mars and beyond.  Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com



The three Falcon include a significantly modified central core, to deal with aerodynamic stresses, that is bolted together to a pair of side-mounted cores with newly developed nose cones mounted in place of payload fairings. 

The two side cores are ‘flight-proven’ boosters that already launched once and were recycled for the Heavy.  They both previously flew as Falcon 9s on the Thaicomm 8 commercial comsat mission and NASA’s Dragon CRS-9 space station resupply mission in May and July 2016 after landing safely back at sea and land respectively on the OCISLY droneship and Landing Zone-1 (LZ-1).

The gigantic two stage Falcon Heavy stands more than 229 feet (70 meters) tall and measures 39.9 feet wide (12.2 meters).  It also features a dozen grid fins and a dozen landing legs attached to the first stage boosters in an attempt to soft land all three cores – by land and by sea.

Both side booster landed nearly simultaneously at SpaceX’s Landing Zones 1 and 2 (LZ-1 and LZ-2) some eight minutes after liftoff.



Watch this landing video from colleague Jeff Seibert:


 





Video Caption: Synchronized landings of the first Falcon Heavy side booster rockets at Landing Zones 1 and 2 after Feb. 6, 2018 launch from pad 39A at KSC, FL Credit: Jeff Seibert


The two recycled SpaceX Falcon Heavy side boosters landed nearly simultaneously, and side by side, on Feb. 6, eight minutes after maiden liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 6, 2018.  Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com

The two recycled SpaceX Falcon Heavy side boosters landed nearly simultaneously, and side by side, on Feb. 6, eight minutes after maiden liftoff from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 6, 2018.  Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com




Landings of the 2 side boosters after debut Falcon Heavy launch on Feb. 6, 2018. Credit: Dawn Leek Taylor
Read our detailed prelaunch and launch stories. 

Liftoff of SpaceX Falcon Heavy on first demonstration test flight from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 6, 2018.  Credit: Julian Leek


Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of Falcon Heavy, ULA and NASA and space mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer - ken at kenkremer.com



Maiden SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket blasts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 6, 2017.  Nose cone housing Starman seated in Tesla Roadster is stenciled with Falcon Heavy logo. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com



Maiden SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket blasts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 6, 2017.  Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com 












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