SpaceX Falcon Heavy Maiden Flight
On Tuesday, 6 February 2018, SpaceX plans to make history once again.
They will be testing their new “Falcon Heavy” rocket for the first time…and the payload is really cool too. They will be launching Elon Musk’s own Tesla Roadster into a heliocentric Earth-Mars transfer orbit. This means that Musk’s car, soon to be the first sports car in space, will be entering an elliptical orbit around the Sun. The shortest part of the elliptical orbit will coincide with Earth’s orbit and the longest part of will coincide with Mars’ orbit. The cars will be playing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” repeatedly on a loop powered by the Sun. If it remains undisturbed, it should continue circling the sun playing the song for millions of years to come.
To celebrate this occasion, we have created and uploaded a 3D model of the Falcon Heavy onto GrabCAD. Here you will be able to download your own one and put it into your own models, or 3D print it or whatever you like.
SpaceX has been busy with the designs of Falcon Heavy for a while and about two years ago they released this video of how the system will work:
They seem not to have deviated from this plan and they will indeed be attempting three first stage landings as planned. This promises to be one of the most interesting events in space exploration history.
Be sure to tune in to the live webcast of the launch on Tuesday and watch space history being made.