Elon Musk is in the news for more cool, tech, billionaire-type stuff. No, not for selling “temperature enhancement devices”, but back to his usual rocket ways. His aerospace / flamethrowing company, SpaceX, will be launching their Falcon Heavy rocket today at 1:30 PM ET. The Heavy will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This historical launch site was used for the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon as well as numerous Space Shuttle missions, including the final Shuttle launch.
If successful, the Heavy will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world. It can carry up to 140,000 pounds, which is more than twice the amount of any other rocket. It’s also relatively cheap at a cost of $90 million per flight. Not too bad when compared to the next most powerful rocket, the Delta IV Heavy, which runs about $350 million per launch. I’m not very in the know of rocket science but it sounds like that’s good for SpaceX because bringing more stuff into space would open a whole new line of business for them. They would be able to do anything from sending heavier satellites into orbit to sending people into deep space (i.e. Mars colonization). Also, a cheap, powerful rocket like this could catch the eye of NASA. They may use this for robotic science missions to Mars and other worlds, or to even take people and heavy cargo to the Moon.
Also worth noting – SpaceX says it will send two paying customers around the Moon using the Falcon Heavy at some point in the future. Count me out for that one, but this means a launch that doesn’t end in an explosion would be one giant step for space tourism.
LIVE STREAM below!
SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket Launch Live Stream
Date: Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Time: Coverage starts at 1:10 PM ET, with the launch expected to begin at 1:30 PM ET
Location: Kennedy Space Center | Cape Canaveral, Florida
Live Stream: Check out SpaceX’s Live Stream of this historic launch
