{"id":14006,"date":"2018-02-06T01:16:40","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T17:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/first-falcon-heavy-launch-blends-spacex-style-raw-power-and-the-unknown\/"},"modified":"2018-02-06T01:16:40","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T17:16:40","slug":"first-falcon-heavy-launch-blends-spacex-style-raw-power-and-the-unknown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/first-falcon-heavy-launch-blends-spacex-style-raw-power-and-the-unknown\/","title":{"rendered":"First Falcon Heavy launch blends SpaceX style, raw power and the unknown"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_30328\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30328\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30328\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/DVUMltoU8AAml8q.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/DVUMltoU8AAml8q.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/DVUMltoU8AAml8q-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/DVUMltoU8AAml8q-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/DVUMltoU8AAml8q-678x452.jpg 678w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30328\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SpaceX\u2019s first Falcon Heavy rocket at pad 39A. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The electric sports car shrouded inside the nose of the first Falcon Heavy rocket may conjure notions of a flight of fancy, but SpaceX founder Elon Musk says the powerful new launcher awaiting blastoff Tuesday from Florida\u2019s Space Coast has a lot to prove.<\/p>\n<p>The towering Falcon Heavy, measuring 229 feet (70 meters) tall and 40 feet (12 meters) abreast, sat atop launch pad 39A Monday at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the eve of its oft-delayed, high-stakes maiden flight.<\/p>\n<p>The Falcon Heavy cuts an imposing figure on the Cape Canaveral landscape, where it awaits liftoff from the same launch pad used by the Apollo 11 moon landing flight and numerous space shuttle missions.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not the biggest rocket in the world \u2014 rival United Launch Alliance\u2019s Delta 4-Heavy is taller and wider \u2014 but the Falcon Heavy\u2019s 27 main engines pack a heavier punch.<\/p>\n<p>Launch is scheduled during a two-and-a-half hour window Tuesday opening at 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT).<\/p>\n<p>For the Falcon Heavy\u2019s first payload, Musk picked one of his used Tesla Roadsters to shoot into space, not the more typical dummy satellite often carried on test flights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just for fun,\u201d Musk said Monday in an interview with CBS News. \u201cA lot of people didn\u2019t understand, what\u2019s the purpose of sending a car to Mars? There\u2019s no point, obviously, it\u2019s just for fun and to get the public excited.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNormally, when a new rocket is tested they put something really boring on like a block of concrete or a chunk of steel or something,\u201d Musk told CBS News. \u201cAll that\u2019s pretty boring. What\u2019s the most fun thing we could put on because this is just a test flight? We\u2019re not going to put any valuable satellites on board. So, the car is just the most fun thing we could think of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Musk released an animation of the Falcon Heavy launch Monday, showing the cherry red electric sports car coasting into the cosmos after its shot into interplanetary space. A spacesuit-clad figure is in the driver\u2019s seat, one arm hanging out the window and the other on the Roadster\u2019s steering wheel.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Tk338VXcb24?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The billionaire shared photos of the figure, which he dubbed \u201cStarman\u201d in apparent reference to the famous David Bowie tune, on Instagram before the automobile\u2019s encapsulation inside the Falcon Heavy\u2019s payload fairing.<\/p>\n<p>Musk announced the Falcon Heavy\u2019s cargo in December, capitalizing on an opportunity for cross-brand marketing between SpaceX and Tesla, his two primary companies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future,\u201d Musk tweeted in December.<\/p>\n<p>Musk said the midnight cherry red Tesla Roadster, which sells for $200,000 brand new, will be playing David Bowie\u2019s iconic hit \u201cSpace Oddity\u201d as it soars into the cosmos.<\/p>\n<p>The Falcon Heavy will dispatch the Roadster \u2014 weighing around 2,760 pounds (1,250 kilograms) on the street \u2014 with enough velocity to escape Earth\u2019s gravitational bonds, reaching a maximum speed of around 7 miles per second (11 kilometers per second; 24,600 mph).<\/p>\n<p>The sports car will go into a \u201cprecessing Earth-Mars elliptical orbit around the sun,\u201d SpaceX officials wrote in the mission\u2019s press kit. The orbit will stretch beyond Mars\u2019 average distance from the sun.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe expect it\u2019ll get about 400 million kilometers away from Earth, maybe 250 to 270 million miles, and be doing 11 kilometers per second,\u201d Musk told reporters Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be in a precessing elliptical orbit, with one part of the ellipse being at Earth orbit the other part being at Mars orbit, so it\u2019ll essentially be an Earth-Mars cycler.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe estimate it\u2019ll be in that orbit for several hundred million years, maybe in excess of a billion years. At times, it will come extremely close to Mars, and there\u2019s a tiny, tiny chance that it will hit Mars,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Asked if SpaceX has quantified the chance of the Roadster impacting Mars, Musk replied: \u201cExtremely tiny. I wouldn\u2019t hold your breath.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30329\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30329\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-30329\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/starman_roadster.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"675\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/starman_roadster.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/starman_roadster-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/starman_roadster-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30329\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Tesla Roadster\u2019s weight and dimensions fall well under the Falcon Heavy\u2019s capacity, and would not stress the lift capability of SpaceX\u2019s smaller, single-core Falcon 9 rocket or Atlas, Delta and Ariane boosters operated by rivals United Launch Alliance and Arianespace.<\/p>\n<p>The iconography surrounding Tuesday\u2019s test launch has captured attention, but star of the show will be the Falcon Heavy itself, set to become the world\u2019s most powerful launcher currently in service.<\/p>\n<p>Comprised of three rocket booster cores derived from SpaceX\u2019s operational Falcon 9 rocket, plus a single-engine upper stage, the Falcon Heavy can generate 5.1 million pounds of thrust in future configurations. On Tuesday\u2019s demo flight, the average thrust from the Falcon Heavy\u2019s 27 kerosene-fueled Merlin 1D engines will be throttled back to 92 percent power, equivalent to roughly 4.7 million pounds, Musk said.<\/p>\n<p>That will surpass the European Ariane 5 launcher, the world\u2019s leader in liftoff power at 2.9 million pound of thrust from two segmented solid rocket boosters and a core engine. SpaceX\u2019s new rocket will produce more thrust than any launch vehicle since the space shuttle, and its power at liftoff \u2014 approximately the same thrust as 18 Boeing 747 jumbo jets \u2014 will come in fourth among rockets all time, after the Soviet Union\u2019s N1 moon rocket, which never had a fully successful flight, NASA\u2019s Saturn 5 launcher that carried astronauts to the moon, Russia\u2019s 1980s-era Energia rocket and the space shuttle.<\/p>\n<p>The Falcon Heavy will also be able to carry more payload into orbit than any other rocket in the world \u2014 and the most by any launcher since the Saturn 5 \u2014 a more important measure of the rocket\u2019s lifting capacity.<\/p>\n<p>The Delta 4-Heavy rocket, the most capable rocket in service today in terms of lift capacity, can haul up to 62,540 pounds (28,370 kilograms) to a low-altitude orbit approximately 120 miles (200 kilometers) above Earth when launched to the east from Cape Canaveral, according to a launch vehicle data sheet published by ULA.<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s planned Space Launch System, set for a maiden flight in late 2019 or early 2020, will carry more than 154,000 pounds (70,000 kilograms) to low Earth orbit and produce a maximum thrust of 8.8 million pounds. A souped-up model of the SLS with an enlarged upper stage launching in the early 2020s could haul more than 230,000 pounds (105 metric tons) to low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n<p>The SLS is being designed with surplus space shuttle engine and booster components, and the space agency intends to use the multibillion-dollar mega-rocket to send astronaut crews to the moon, and eventually beyond.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30314\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30314\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30314\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/IMG_2985-3-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/IMG_2985-3-copy.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/IMG_2985-3-copy-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/IMG_2985-3-copy-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/IMG_2985-3-copy-678x452.jpg 678w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30314\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When its first stage boosters are not recovered, SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy will be capable of delivering up to 140,660 pounds (63,800 kilograms) to low Earth orbit when launched to the east from Florida\u2019s Space Coast, where rockets get a velocity boost from Earth\u2019s rotation.<\/p>\n<p>But SpaceX intends to land all three first stage boosters on the Falcon Heavy, eating into the rocket\u2019s propellant reserves and reducing the weight it can loft into orbit.<\/p>\n<p>A Falcon Heavy rocket flight sells commercially for around $90 million, according to SpaceX\u2019s website. But a mission for NASA or the U.S. military, which levy additional requirements on their launch providers, is expected to go for $150 million or more.<\/p>\n<p>A mission using ULA\u2019s Delta 4-Heavy rocket costs at least twice that. A Delta 4-Heavy launch contract for NASA\u2019s Parker Solar Probe awarded in 2015 was valued at $389 million.<\/p>\n<p>Musk predicted the first Falcon Heavy has a 50 to 70 percent chance of full success, but the final outcome of Tuesday\u2019s test flight will only be known more than six hours after liftoff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s so much that can go wrong here,\u201d Musk told CBS News. \u201cThere are a lot of experts out there saying there\u2019s no way you can do 27 engines, all at the same time, and not have something go wrong.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve got the booster-to-booster interaction, acoustics and vibration that haven\u2019t been seen from any man-made device in a long time,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n<p>The Soviet-era N1 rocket had 30 engines, but Russian engineers had trouble getting all of the powerplants to work in unison. Engine vibrations, turbopump failures and fuel leaks led to four failed launch attempts.<\/p>\n<p>By comparison, the Saturn 5 had five larger first stage engines.<\/p>\n<p>Built at SpaceX\u2019s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, the Falcon Heavy will encounter intense structural loads as it climbs to the east from the Kennedy Space Center and exceeds the speed of sound. The moment of maximum aerodynamic pressure, known as Max-Q, will be a major stress point.<\/p>\n<p>The Falcon Heavy\u2019s core stage was manufactured specifically for the test flight. Engineers stiffened the center core to take the loads of a Falcon Heavy launch.<\/p>\n<p>The two side boosters were refurbished and modified after launching two earlier Falcon 9 flights, sending the Thaicom 8 communications satellite and a space station-bound cargo capsule toward orbit in May and July of 2016.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAround Max-Q, that\u2019s where the force on the rocket is the greatest, and that\u2019s possibly where it could fail as well,\u201d Musk said. \u201cWe\u2019re a bit worried about ice potentially falling off the upper stage onto the nose cones of the side boosters. That could be coming like a cannon ball through the nose cones.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26083\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26083\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26083\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/falconheavy_sep.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"461\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/falconheavy_sep.png 675w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/falconheavy_sep-300x205.png 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/falconheavy_sep-30x20.png 30w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26083\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist\u2019s illustration of the Falcon Heavy\u2019s two side-mounted boosters separating from the rocket\u2019s core stage a few minutes after liftoff. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve done all the (computer) modeling we could think of,\u201d Musk told CBS News. \u201cWe\u2019ve asked \u2026 third parties to double check the calculations, make sure we haven\u2019t made any mistakes. So, we\u2019re not aware of any issues, nobody has been able to point out any fundamental issues. In theory it should work. But where theory and reality collide, reality wins.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Falcon Heavy\u2019s twin boosters will cut off their engines and fall away from the rocket around two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, a separation sequence that has also never been tested in flight. The core stage, operating a lower throttle setting to conserve propellant and burn longer, will continue firing its nine engines until T+plus 3 minutes, 4 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it clears the pad and hopefully makes it throgh transonic and Max-Q, and the boosters are able to separate, it\u2019s a more normal regime,\u201d Musk said. \u201cIt becomes like a Falcon 9 at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The upper stage\u2019s single Merlin engine will fire three times on Tuesday\u2019s mission, continuing the demo flight\u2019s experiments well after liftoff.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the Falcon Heavy\u2019s two strap-on boosters will flip around to fly tail-first with the aid of cold-gas nitrogen thrusters. Some of the engines on each booster will reignite for \u201cboostback\u201d and \u201centry\u201d maneuvers to aim for two adjacent touchdown zones at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station around 9 miles (13 kilometers) south of pad 39A.<\/p>\n<p>Like the Falcon 9\u2019s first stage, the boosters will unfurl grid fins for added stability.<\/p>\n<p>Twin sonic booms will crack across the spaceport as the boosters return to Cape Canaveral for staggered landings, slowed with the help of rocket thrust.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket\u2019s center core will head for touchdown on SpaceX\u2019s drone ship positioned downrange in the Atlantic Ocean, with landing expected at T+plus 8 minutes, 19 seconds, approximately 20 seconds after the boosters arrive back on the ground at Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n<p>The second stage engine will shut down to conclude its first burn at around T+plus 8 minutes, 31 seconds. Another 30-second firing is programmed to start at T+plus 28 minutes, 22 seconds, to send the upper stage, its Tesla cargo and \u201cStarman\u201d into an orbit that ranges to a peak altitude tens of thousands of miles above Earth.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30330\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30330\" style=\"width: 1016px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30330\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/fhgraphic_updated_20170404.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1016\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/fhgraphic_updated_20170404.jpg 1016w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/fhgraphic_updated_20170404-300x97.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/fhgraphic_updated_20170404-768x249.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/fhgraphic_updated_20170404-678x220.jpg 678w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1016px) 100vw, 1016px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30330\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A side-by-side comparison of the Falcon Heavy with other current launchers. The illustration is shown approximately to scale. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But the mission will not be over.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket will keep flying, soaring through the Van Allen radiation belts before its engine reignites around six hours later for a departure maneuver into interplanetary space.<\/p>\n<p>Musk said the extreme cold and radiation will present hazards during the six-hour coast, which is twice as long as any profile followed by a Falcon 9 rocket in the past.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven once we reach orbit we\u2019ve got a very long coast, we\u2019ve got a six-hour coast before restart, which is twice as long as we\u2019ve ever coasted a stage, so we could see the fuel potentially freeze, because it\u2019s out there in deep space, and when it\u2019s not facing the sun it\u2019s at three degrees above absolute zero,\u201d Musk told CBS News. \u201cSo it could easily freeze, or the liquid oxygen could boil off, so there\u2019s a lot that could go wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The upper stage \u201cwill actually be in a far worse radiation environment than deep space for several hours, survive that, and then re-light for the trans-Mars injection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Long-duration upper stage flight profiles are required for the most demanding U.S. military launch missions, such as the placement of satellites directly into geostationary orbit, a circular perch more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator. Multiple, perfectly-timed engine burns are needed to move from an initial low-altitude inclined parking orbit into such a high-altitude equatorial position.<\/p>\n<p>The lengthy upper stage flight Tuesday will try to demonstrate the Falcon rocket family\u2019s capability to pull off such a feat, showcasing the performance to the Air Force and other prospective customers.<\/p>\n<p>Musk said the upper stage carries additional battery power and pressurant gas for the extra operating time in space.<\/p>\n<p>Musk unveiled the Falcon Heavy rocket in 2011, and proclaimed then the launcher would be ready for blastoff in 2013. SpaceX said it slowed development of the Falcon Heavy to focus on other projects, including the recovery of Falcon 9 rocket stages for reuse, and to resolve technical problems that destroyed two Falcon 9 rockets in 2015 and 2016, one in flight and another on the launch pad.<\/p>\n<p>Musk announced in September his updated vision for settling Mars \u2014 SpaceX\u2019s ultimate mission \u2014 and announced that his company is working on a giant new rocket dubbed the BFR that could send cargo and crew ships to the red planet, or perhaps the moon if a lunar base becomes reality.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX developed the Falcon Heavy to lift heavier payloads into space than the company\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket, and to compete with other heavy-lifters for contracts to haul massive spacecraft for the U.S. military and NASA. The Falcon Heavy may also find a niche in deploying large commercial satellites, or launching clusters of smaller spacecraft to support the build-out of planned broadband communications networks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis rocket\u2019s great for a lot of reasons,\u201d Musk told CBS News. \u201cIt\u2019s something that I think inspires the public. I\u2019ve been asked, is this like Apollo? I\u2019d say it\u2019s not Apollo, but it\u2019s arguably a prelude to a new Apollo, and it\u2019s going to be the only heavy to super-heavy lift rocket in the world. This will be more than twice the thrust and capability of any other rocket currently flying. And if it reaches orbit, it will have the most payload of any rocket since the Saturn 5.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou could actually send people back to the moon with the Falcon Heavy. You could, with orbital refueling, send people to Mars,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think probably our next design, the BFR, is going to be ideal for interplanetary colonization and for establishing a large base on the moon and a city on Mars,\u201d he said. \u201cBut this is a prelude to that. This is going to teach us a lot about what\u2019s necessary to have a huge booster with a crazy number of engines.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe finally have a major advancement in rocketry \u2026 I\u2019m not sure whether this will be lost on people, whether they\u2019ll appreciate it,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope they do, because the era of the very large rocket went away with Saturn 5 and with the space shuttle. I find it odd that the Falcon Heavy is twice the thrust of anything from Russia, China, Boeing, Lockheed or Europe. And I hope it encourages them to raise their sights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Going into Tuesday\u2019s test flight, only three Falcon Heavy missions are confirmed in SpaceX\u2019s backlog after the test launch: Two for commercial telecom companies Arabsat and ViaSat, and one for the Air Force. Another company, Inmarsat, has an option to launch a future satellite on a Falcon Heavy.<\/p>\n<p>Some customers that reserved launches on SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy rocket switched their satellites to the smaller Falcon 9, which benefited from multiple thrust and performance upgrades to carry some payloads that originally required the triple-core rocket.<\/p>\n<p>Inmarsat and Intelsat had planned launches on the Falcon Heavy, but both ended up flying their satellites on the Falcon 9. The ViaSat 2 satellite built to provide high-speed Internet access across the United States was supposed to launch on a Falcon Heavy, but the firm move its launch to a European Ariane 5 rocket, citing schedule worries. ViaSat retained its contract with SpaceX to launch a future satellite on a Falcon Heavy.<\/p>\n<p>Musk told CBS News he was \u201cgiddy\u201d on the eve of the Falcon Heavy\u2019s first blastoff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought for sure something would delay us, we could have some issue we discovered on the rocket or maybe bad weather,\u201d Musk said in a conference call with reporters Monday afternoon. \u201cBut the weather\u2019s looking good, the rocket\u2019s looking good, so it should be an exciting day. I\u2019m looking forward to it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll have a good time no matter what happens. It\u2019s guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another. It\u2019s either going to be an exciting success or an exciting failure. One big boom! I\u2019d say tune in, it\u2019s going to be worth your time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But he\u2019s hopeful for success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve done everything we can,\u201d Musk said. \u201cI\u2019m sure we\u2019ve done everything we could do to maximize the chances of success of this mission. I think once you\u2019ve done everything you can think of and it still goes wrong, well, there\u2019s nothing you could have done. But I feel at peace with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceX\u2019s first Falcon Heavy rocket at pad 39A. Credit: SpaceX The electric sports car shrouded inside the nose of the first Falcon Heavy rocket may conjure notions of a flight of fancy, but SpaceX founder Elon Musk says the powerful new launcher awaiting blastoff Tuesday from Florida\u2019s Space Coast has a lot to prove. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[291,1045,678,3036,428,25,1702,316],"class_list":["post-14006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-elon-musk","tag-falcon-heavy","tag-falcon-heavy-demo-flight","tag-kennedy-space-center","tag-launch","tag-launch-pad-39a","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14006"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}