Falcon Heavy - Starman is now Waiting In The Sky

What a day, what a lovely day! Riding eternal and all that right?
Starman is indeed waiting in the sky, and he did blow our minds.
Everything I can tell you about yesterdays Falcon Heavy launch.
For extra bonus points - the orbit may be unstable on the order of thousands of years
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[@m_chupon5131]

Elon's girlfriend told him he should vacuum the car, clearly he misunderstood ;)

[@eduardosolbes9755]

*slow clap*

[@PseudoReality28]

Half a billion dollars later... "Honey, the car is now offically vacuumed."

[@DamianReloaded]

Plot twist: The (ex) girlfriend is in the frunk. XD

[@TananBaboo]

He just took it out for a spin.... around the earth.

[@toadelevator]

There's bound to be a French-Fry wedged way down by the seat-braces somewhere. It will undoubtedly survive through eternity with no further degradation.

[@GreatgoatonFire]

Honestly I found the almost simultaneous landing of the two boosters to be the most impressive part of this launch.

[@malafor7454]

I have to say the same :)

[@HTWW]

It felt almost surreal. SOOOOO close to the CGI-footage. And the distance somewhat decreases the effect - they're actually HUGE, as we all remember. Aaaaahhhh, I imagine BFR landing just as gracefully as FH's boosters, and I'm already drooling.

[@Dethmeister]

Yeah, the way the rockets land reminds me of old 50's tv and movies. I always thought it was funny how they had rocket shaped ships landing like that but here it is a reality.

[@danilooliveira6580]

its so weird, the FOV of the camera made the rockets look so small

[@ThorbenGroth]

In the press conference Elon said, that they were slightly *offset on purpose* to not confuse the radar. So in theory, they could make it *even more* synchronized!

[@aelux4179]

If you ask me, Tesla's quality testing has gotten out of hand.

[@hunter4036]

Aelux You sir made my day

[@beenn15]

their quality testing is out of this world

[@siyacer]

Tesla Roadster is officially (and still) the fastest car in the --world-- universe, with a speed of 40000 km/h, or 11 km/s.

[@DiveTheseClips]

let's just say it's the fastest car humanity has ever made

[@nerfinator03]

Fastest accellerating for sure

[@Widestone001]

And hotwheels has the fastest man-made toy car as well :-)

[@vonshroom2068]

Eh... Hate to burst your bubble but the fastest car in the world is the lunar rover. Tesla might be the fastest production car though ;)

[@neo-loser]

Von Shroom I think the Roadster has to go faster to reach a Mars insertion orbit than the rovers did to get to the Moon.

[@zacksstuff]

I spent an hour yesterday listening to David Bowie and watching the livestream from Starman.

[@Lintary]

Just to note they would not refly the boosters cause they where a mix of block 3 & 4 units and from now they only refly the final design block 5 units. So if flown with block 5 units they would be recovered and reflown.

[@SolyomSzava]

Yeah, they basically used the kitchen-sink approach on this to limit costs and potential losses...

[@darkestkhan]

And it still worked.

[@Kepe]

This is what I wanted to say as well. They never intended to reuse the boosters or the core, so it's no big deal that the core was lost. Although possible damage to the barge is unfortunate.

[@frederf3227]

Is there a lifecycle plan for boosters like brand new left, 1st reuse right, 2nd resuse center, center is discarded for delta V?

[@bman7653]

I thought one of those was block 2

[@beyondsingularity]

I can just see it: the year is 2030, Roadster is coming back to Earth, Jeff Bezos is waiting - it is Grand Theft Auto: Orbital Edition.

[@lemao_squash4486]

Extraordinary Journey Scott is now the president of California and Donald Trump officially declares free walls to everyone in texas

[@cokeforever]

Urho Drinks Water trump in 12 years?))))

[@lemao_squash4486]

S C yes. Overlord of the galaxy, trumpovich

[@Steve211Ucdhihifvshi]

lets just hope it doesnt smash shit around in the belt and it also follows the remains back to earth.

[@prof_hu]

Jeff Who?

[@Buizie]

He didn't put a maneuver node that's why it exceeded mars's orbit XD

[@alanPLB]

nah he forget to slow down the fast forward

[@Buizie]

alanPLB That too, if it's not the fast Timewarp ones

[@yudha1577]

he pressed z instead of shift

[@Buizie]

Yudha Adigutama Nah. He just left his pc for a bit and forgot to press X when it's time to do so

[@tetsujin_144]

He's in career mode, he can't do maneuver nodes yet.

[@nazamroth8427]

5000 years later: "So... what do you think this is?" "uhm...... okay, I have no idea...?"

[@IneptOrange]

"Eh just throw it in with the rest of the garbage it's probably nothing."

[@XavierAncarno]

Meltdown in the Flat earth society.... _”The feed wasn’t live”_ _”people on the ground were hypnotized, the launch didn’t happen”_ _”the camera use fisheye lens”_ 😂😂😂

[@maxmaxie1328]

Flat earth are Troll next level of internet, and yeah they have trust issue.

[@Old_Ladies]

They are saying it is cgi as well lol

[@peter12246]

Xavier Ancarno Flatards are dumber than a bag of rocks

[@KappaKiller108]

What if the earth is flat but the magic Dragon God's bend all the light and energy we perceive so it looks round! All just to rise Cheetos Stock price and fuel their birthing chambers!

[@aelux4179]

GoombaGenocide I see no flaws in this statement. We've been rumbled.

[@yellowcavefrog3481]

An overall AMAZING launch! even though the core stage crashed, it was a maiden voyage and a first test. Congratulations SpaceX and Musk!

[@AthAthanasius]

Aye, that centre core has a LOT of changes to it compared to a standard Falcon 9 (or the ones used as boosters). It has the coupling/separation machinery for the boosters *and* has to withstand the extra stress of the added thrust from the boosters. It does seem weird that they "ran out" of the re-ignition fuel, surely they knew "start all 9 engines, then one for boost back, one again for atmospheric entry, then 3 for landing" ? Also they'd done this 3 engine landing as a test on the prior Falcon 9 launch where they landed it on the ocean, due to not planning to recover it (but then it decided to float, so last we heard they were going to go fetch it). Perhaps the issue was more with the re-ignition *working*. I look forward to some post-flight analysis in the coming weeks/months once all the data is in.

[@dancorps1388]

Ath Athanasius I thought they did 3 for slow down during atmospheric entry. Did I miss here, or is it different with boost back?

[@scottfirman]

Silas Springer He said it didnt matter anyways. Not reusing that equipment. It was more of a stunt than anything. I wished they wouldve launched an unmanned capsule to Mars with camara's and equipment to show we can indeed reach Mars with a manned flight. We sent several test launches to the moon too. Sending a stupid car makes no sense.

[@yellowcavefrog3481]

who says that's not the second test flight :P I had heard Musk said that the core stage was less important to recover than the side boosters as well.

[@badtrekee4348]

The center stage ran out of fuel so only one engine lit instead of three they were planning on to slow down the rocket.

[@nathangek]

They did actually delayed one of the boosters because they didn't want the radars to interfere, but Elon said it was just how physics played out that they landed almost simultaneously.

[@mirokefurt4740]

Interesting that the CGI shown months ago looks EXACTLY the same !?

[@istvankovasznai]

Seeing how the starman is just chillin' in that Roadster, calmly staring down the harsh vacuum of space, I bet his real name is Jebediah!

[@cokeforever]

Istvan Kovasznai vacuum is nothingness, all other metaphors are 80's PR bs

[@istvankovasznai]

I don't think you got the KSP analogy...

[@thenotflatearth2714]

I guess he really made the grade, but the papers already know he wears spacex shirt

[@greenrocket23]

Underrated comment, here is a like for you dude, take good care of it! XD

[@fixman88]

And he is definitely floating in a most peculiar way.

[@noob19087]

There's a starman, waiting in the sky until the year 2030. He'd like to come and meet us, but unfortunately he's in space right now.

[@ionlyreplytosexproposition8972]

The Spherical Earth But do we tell his wife that he loves her very much?

[@barry3612]

Schwantz Klopfer she knows.

[@xKatjaxPurrsx]

Plot Twist: Starman was actually kidnapped Jeff Bezos.

[@cathallawlor989]

xKatjaxPurrsx who?

[@milkhbox]

Hardrive33 Wow, what rock have you been living under? He's the founder of Blue Origin and Amazon.

[@tarnvedra9952]

Jeff Who?

[@sterby1]

I know a Jeff, he is bartender, chill dude, lots of hair

[@reinbot3187]

No, it's a joke. Elon Musk responded "Jeff Who?" when he was asked about Jeff Bezos in relation to the Blue Origin Company.

[@choibacco]

so thats what happened to the Stig .. o7

[@michaelbuckers]

F

[@zapfanzapfan]

The ultimate revenge on Top Gear :-)

[@hoenndpn9200]

choibacco stig has ascended to the year 3018

[@cmdraftbrn]

some said, he was a pro race car driver. some said, he was a alien. guess we know now lol.

[@cpufreak101]

The Stig's astronaut cousin

[@SpecialEDy]

Check out "Radar Rider", the intro song on the movie Heavy Metal. It's a video of a 50's corvette convertible reentering the atmosphere with chill astronaut piloting it.

[@vagabondht5791]

Thats what i thought when i first saw it

[@patbluetree4636]

Lol ,That's all I could see when i saw this.

[@the_crazy_quadrider2959]

The first thing I thought looking the news today... Greetings from Germany

[@dutchsailor6620]

My first thought also : kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpCuiZp8pcyoe5I

[@Samizdata]

Right here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/bXnRiZuimL6Nnqs

[@namAehT]

It's a shame that they didn't put panels or an RTG onboard, would have loved to see a year-round live feed of Starman. Also wished that they didn't tell anyone about starman, leaving it as a suprise.

[@tarnvedra9952]

Yeah give Elon some Plutonium, sounds like a great idea.

[@Regolith86]

Solar panels would have been a good idea. RTG's are incredibly expensive and rely on a small supply of nuclear material that we don't make a lot of, so using one of those would have been a bad idea...

[@ElectricityTaster]

You think Elon doesn't have some easter eggs planned?

[@cornernickel7525]

Real life Easter eggs?

[@IneptOrange]

There's a starman, waiting in the sky, He'd like to come back down here but he's stuck there for a while... There's a rocket, in peices in the sea. It might have not quite have made it, but it blew up perfectly...

[@Valenorious]

Could the flat earthers really claim it as CGI-fake? I mean, surely there is a limit to how much you can predict world scale weather paterns in time to render this.

[@cyberbird451]

people claim any random shit nowadays, something there isn't a limit on is stupidity.

[@m_chupon5131]

Even if faking it were possible (it's not), why go to the trouble of a 5-hour cgi when they could have just used a dummy payload and called it a day?

[@scottmanley]

Of course they can claim that, they don't let simple logical arguments get in the way of their unreality bubble. twitter.com/DJSnM/status/958479997437554688

[@eugenepowell2762]

It looks fake because it is

[@jackvernian7779]

+Eugene Powell Sure it is. Of course, you're always right. Always. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise. You'll go far if you think that only you are right.

[@zapfanzapfan]

Fantastic imagery with the Earth in the background. The Apollo 8-moment with Earthrise of our generation :-)

[@harbingerdawn]

This is awesome and all, but there is no comparison to Apollo 8. That event was on another level entirely.

[@Exodon2020]

Yeah, one of the key moments in mankind's history compared to an idea seeming to be born out of a drunk dare. Well, despite the fair amount of madness involved, Starman and his Convertible are now the common legacy of all humankind, just like the Footsteps on the Moon. Even when we're long gone, this lone wanderer will continue traveling the void as a beacon of human Civilization. That being taken into account taking a car was quite a fitting choice.

[@TheAgamemnon911]

I am imagining some aliens visiting our solar system and finding the car in a couple million years going "WHAT THE F?!"

[@cokeforever]

Yeah, and then they discover fish, porn and Bowie) poor and technically inferior them )))))

[@boataxe4605]

Agamemnon Yep,to them That’s a UFO.

[@Sorestlor]

Imagine us in 2 thousand years finding this old relic floating in space.

[@real_hanji]

And they say elecrtic cars dont have good range

[@ElectricityTaster]

All vehicles have good range if they're towed.

[@ferociousfeind8538]

All vehicles can reach 12 billion kilometers in their lifetime if they're flying through interplanetary space.

[@ElectricityTaster]

All vehicles have traveled 12 billion kilometers if you chose the right reference point.

[@fred_derf]

It may have started out as a electric vehicle, but I think it's more of a hybrid at this point...

[@fluffywarhampster]

The best option for using the rocket in a disposable format is probably using boosters that are at the end of their service life.

[@davemanmartin]

True, one last hoorah for an old booster, then drop it in the ocean!

[@IneptOrange]

The self destruct feature is also pretty good for cleaning up space debris.

[@zingyearth]

The boosters were on their final launch rating the core was brand new.

[@adamdapatsfan]

I watched the burn happen from here in Phoenix - went outside to see if I could see the stage, and lo and behold, it was venting! Turned out to be ullage thrust for the burn, which was absolutely amazing to watch, all the way from startup to shutdown. Knowing that I was looking directly at a rocket heading off to interplanetary space was so cool!

[@BarcelPL]

If they recover this car, even if it's half burned from reentry, it would be THE most expensive car you could buy. Also probaply it would fund SpaceX for next couple of years.

[@TheOneWhoMightBe]

The first BFR can go collect it. :)

[@iamzid]

Barcel, it's going to be orbiting up there for a long time. it's entirely possible that someone may try at some point, if for no other reason than just to get it out of the way.

[@whereswa11y]

In 2030 who knows what tech the average billionaire will have, it might be a Grand Theft Auto race yes?

[@generalrodcocker1018]

poor, poor stig. alone for billion years.

[@TommyCubed]

foo bar He'll go to mars and drift the Tesla. Watch.

[@SuperVstech]

Ha! Jeremy, you have gone too far this time...

[@Skip6235]

They should have put solar panels on it to keep the cameras running

[@m_chupon5131]

There won't really be anything to see once it gets away from Earth though

[@cokeforever]

And antena and the RTG) And then warp it to maneuver))

[@lamarw7757]

The car runs on battery. I'm guessing they removed them. Weight = $. But then they said music was playing on the radio? Can't hear sound in space. Fishy stuff.

[@jzerious4523]

Skip6235 I know it was so dumb that they didn't

[@tybo09]

More like they should've put a couple of servos in the suit to make it move and really screw with people", am I right? :)

[@Poki3]

I lived to see a car flying through space. 🌎🚀🚗🌟

[@illuminate4622]

A production car!

[@adolfodef]

@ Atilla : Actually, Elon said they did not have time or resources to test it in the only vaccuum chamber big enough to fit it (at NASA, KSC, Florida); so that means it is an actual Midnight Cherry Tesla Roadster [they did not know if it will broke in space or not; but does not matter since replaced a standard "dummy test weight" of concrete].

[@illuminate4622]

Atilla Why do you think so?

[@SILVERSTRIPE_]

Poki#3 see it on CGI LOL

[@MG-iy1oh]

Poki#3 No you didn't...

[@lucywucyyy]

seeing the two boosters landing side by side was one of the coolest things i ever watched and starman flying through space with david bowie playing gave me chills

[@hansdietrich83]

Why didn't they just put a few solar panels on it? We could have gotten deep space pictures of starman

[@-stickymations-4367]

hansdietrich83 I'd assume it's not that simple. If you were to put some solar panels, you'd have to put in some more money. Once you have solar panels, you need them to keep pointing at the sun. Then, you'd need an antenna to transmit the pictures. And once you solved all these problems, you would have to deal with the fact that people would eventually get bored of seeing a car on a completely black background

[@Vulcano7965]

To be honest it would be quite boring. I don't know the exact capabilities of the onboard cameras but at best we would have seen Starman with a few dots behind him. Or just a black background. And that for years to come. We watched the most interesting part.

[@m_chupon5131]

Space is pretty empty once you get away from the planet, I think they got all the cool pictures they were gonna get

[@whereswa11y]

Agreed, would have generated a few new "Blue Marble" shots in the next little while. Could have annoyed the FE crew with them.

[@Vulcano7965]

Let's be real, nothing is worth annoying the FE fucks. They won't change their mind (in public) Someone who still believes or spread this FE nonsense at this point is not worth to be mad about. Let's just ignore them. Best method.

[@corporalsilver6981]

I can already imagine a stellaris anomaly where it says a strange vehicle was detected in orbit of the star, it appears it was designed for ground based transportation and it should have no purpose up here.

[@alexsiemers7898]

Maybe KSP could get another unknown object Easter egg (like the magic boulder) for the Roadster

[@Extratyggis]

50,000 years later aliens find tesla in space and will probably think "wtf"

[@boataxe4605]

sle To them it’s a UFO!

[@IneptOrange]

And then they'll see our sand covered radioactive rock absolutely littered with space-junk, trash and debris and yeet the fuck back to hyperspace in horror.

[@bbgun061]

I would expect the expendable version of Falcon 9 to cost more (to the customer) than a reusable Falcon Heavy. That would give an incentive to use the Falcon Heavy and not throw boosters away. So far SpaceX has not been charging more for the expendable launches. I think that's because landings were experimental and most of the block 1-4 boosters aren't meant for full re-use. Now that Block 5 is in production as the final version, they will want to use them a lot more to actually make a profit.

[@BGraves]

You are the voice that puts me to sleep most nights. A while back you had a notification for a talk you were doing on a friday night. Where is it?

[@tetsujin_144]

I hadn't been keeping track of the Falcon Heavy's launch schedule, but fortunately there were two helpful coincidences: - I saw your video yeaterday which informed me that the launch was happening - The launch was delayed until the afternoon As a result, my daughter was able to watch the launch live and she was really excited to see it!

[@episanty]

But no Russell's teapot on the car, though

[@bluemountain4181]

Actually there is a teapot sitting on the passenger seat of the car. Don't believe me? Well prove that I'm wrong.

[@Vevvev8]

But then it wouldn't be improbable.

[@josephgroves3176]

Oh my God they totally missed a trick there

[@hraharahra]

The towel is in the glovebox :)

[@Roxfox]

Oh boy...

[@grumpysanta6318]

I heard they removed the car batteries to prevent, in the event of a failure, having to deal with the burning lithium.

[@SolyomSzava]

That sounds very plausible... there was plenty of explodingy stuff on that launch, they didn't really need any additional potential causes of "unplanned rapid disassembly".

[@MazelTovCocktail]

That could be. It would also reduce the mass making a test launch easier.

[@williamwallace4787]

front brake discs also removed

[@grumpysanta6318]

Dang, how's he going to stop?

[@nathanaelvetters2684]

Probably smart. I wish they had put some small solar panels on there so they could periodically show a live feed in the far future

[@MinedMaker]

The third core must have gone out of load range.

[@Reactordrone]

But they switched focus back to it ;P

[@bencarley6896]

I'm a college student in the uk about to start work. When I was real young my dad gave me a poster of pathfinder with pictures of mars. Unfortunately the amazement faded and I never really looked up. Now I see things like the falcon heavy and BFR and feel awe. It's like my generation hit the dead patch of space travel where all the exiting stuff should already have or be happening. Now I see SpaceX and I curse myself. If I had been better, smarter, tried harder and had this passion I may have had a realistic chance of going. Now I will work and save. Mabey one day years from now I will get enough to go. We lost the dream of I want to be an astronaut when I grow up. We never had the 'I will go somewhere unexplored, you wait and see!' If I end up having and raising kids on earth or mars, I will make damn sure they dream of something more. I look back to the poster now and wish I had realized how blown my mind should have been. Much love to Musk and Manley. That ksp docking tutorial was a life saver. Trying to stop going around the target is a bitch if you wing it. Click target THEN retrograde. I felt SOOOOOOO thick.

[@_majortom_]

Planet Earth is blue And there's nothing I can do

[@Deamon93IT]

I should thank Elon for this, I'm about to write my thesis about Tesla and that "DON'T PANIC" screen while looking at Earth would be a glorious first image :D

[@Nilguiri]

A thesis on that? Where? At Trump "University"? Lame af.

[@Deamon93IT]

I'm from Europe (Italy to be precise), studying finance. It is quite an interesting subject since the stocks are quite high compared to the actual results of the company (and the massive amount of cash burnt per quarter)

[@Nilguiri]

OK

[@jnevercast]

I know plenty people that don't own stocks in anything else except Tesla, because they believe in the company, and believe in Musk. Even without owning a Tesla themselves. They want to give Tesla money, and they hope for a return in the long run.

[@Deamon93IT]

Those people, coupled with the very low interest rates, have saved Tesla from bankruptcy. I hope for those people Tesla would be able to generate revenues sooner rather than later, otherwise they're going to hit a brick wall with the rising interest rates

[@gordonrichardson2972]

Excellent summing-up, with lots of details I didn't get from elsewhere!

[@gordonrichardson2972]

Clarification at 01:50, what they ran out of was not a fuel, but a pyrophoric liquid mixture used to ignite the engine combustion process: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triethylborane#Rocket

[@gordonrichardson2972]

Between 06:40 and 07:15 you can see the shadow of the second-stage booster, which is still attached to the car. The booster itself will also make the trip beyond Mars orbit.

[@gordonrichardson2972]

At 07:20, it is mentioned that they will not reuse the side-boosters from the Falcon Heavy. There is a significant weight penalty in the extra reinforcing needed to strap 3 cores together, so presumably this combination will only be used when the payload justifies it. I assume that in this case the side-boosters were able to be easily recovered because of the lightweight payload. In addition it would be useful to strip down and laboratory test each one, to be able to optimise their design and construction for the next version.

[@gordonrichardson2972]

Question: At 05:45 how did they calculate the aphelion for an object in deep space? Nasa has tracking abilities which SpaceX doesn't. Did they request tracking data from Nasa?

[@scottmanley]

Why is that a clarification because it's almost exactly what I said.

[@km5405]

sending a car to space is the coolest thing ever - genius bit of marketing there by the way musk ;) anyone can relate to that feeling not just nerds :D

[@SpecialEDy]

They need to refuel the core with the boosters, more delta v

[@josephgroves3176]

Special EDy. They planned that, found it was too hard. When SpaceX say it's too hard, you know it's hard

[@AthAthanasius]

Apparently the original plan was to have fuel crossfeed to some degree, to have both the boosters and the centre core at full throttle early and once past MaxQ, but they decided to forgo the extra complexity, so the centre core is not at full thrust for a good portion of the climb in order to have propellant left after BECO and booster separation.

[@AllanFolm]

In KSP, that's a given. In real life, you need lots of hardware - pumps and pipes and controls - which all add MASS. And increased risk of failures.

[@bencarley6896]

Special EDy Nah, struts. Just add struts. Does it wobble? Will it always go upside down? Does it shake about before launch and just go boom? Does the payload wobble through the fairing? Struts, struts and another load of struts. Also stick Jeb on for expert random button pushing. Mabey some boosters on decouplers beneath the three falcons.

[@bencarley6896]

I read what I have writeen and wonder how on earth I do well on ksp.

[@rohnerw]

I have not been this excited, about space flight, since as a kid, watching the televised coverage of the Gemini and Apollo missions. I do remember a bit of the end of the Mercury program, but I was only about eight years old when the program ended. Exciting times!!! This type of advance and action in space flight, is long, long overdue! I do rather wish they had somehow included solar panels, to provide power and telemetry ongoing from the Tesla.

[@AllanFolm]

Not 300 kph, but 300 MPH.

[@Lilpiip123]

Allan Folmersen km/h

[@REVOLUTIONS51]

Allan Folmersen are you shure? This would be supersonic, by the time the core makes it to the surface it would be slown down by aerodynamic forces, you have to remember thah is not that heavy one emptied of the fuel. Even with just one engine it would be subsonic...

[@HTWW]

REVOLUTIONS51 isn't speed of sound around 330meters/second (1156km/h, sealevel air pressure)? So no, it's very much subsonic.

[@wierdalien1]

REVOLUTIONS51 Elon said it was 300mph thats not quite supersonic

[@theophrastusbombastus8019]

I once read that terminal velocity of a falcon first stage was abot 150 m/s, pretty close to a blunt cylinder of that density, 300 mph is about 140 m/s so I think MPH is pretty resonable.

[@3000gtwelder]

That is so cool you talked about the paint! I asked that same question on both of the Space X KZbin channels, and couldn't find my questions later. I brought up the question of the paint going from -250F to + 250F every time it went from sun to shade, and how that would effect the paint. I never could find a response. Thank you!

[@RobertAslinMusic]

It's now the most powerful launch vehicle since the Saturn V and y'all are being cynics about it. Y'all must be fun at parties.

[@scottmanley]

Most powerful US made liquid fueled booster (STS got more thrust via SRBs, Energia was a Soviet booster with more thrust)

[@reckeroffaces880]

Scott Manley I hope the falcon heavy can be used to deliver some mars rovers...

[@TiGGer1098]

Scott Manley spot on, STS combined was more than Saturn V ....just 😂

[@scottmanley]

And N-1 had more than that.

[@RobertAslinMusic]

What, y'all don't expect me to say 'you guys', do y'all?

[@capo1mico]

The more than half a billion dollars quote from Elon was about SpaceX as a whole since its inception, and not about the Falcon Heavy project itself. Also, not reflying any of the boosters only affects the test fly. Their intention is to recover the core and both boosters for each FH launch.

[@dongurudebro4579]

BTW Elon said there are no sensor in "Starman", sadly.

[@CharliePlaysOxbow]

@Scott Manley: They did NOT use two copies of the booster footage, it is in STEREO 3D...My friends and I thought it was duplicate footage, too, but when I went back and inspected the footage later yesterday evening I noticed a tiny bit of parallax between the two frames and tried crossing my eyes to superimpose the images and it popped into 3D! It makes the stage separation, boostback, and landing approach that much more exciting to watch. The downlink footage used in the livestream was from two cameras mounted on the north booster, offset laterally to produce binocular footage used in 3D post processing. If you have ever used one of those magic-eye posters, the same technique can be used to view the booster footage in 3D. Or you could load it as an image into a smartphone and view it in a google daydream/cardboard, or equivalent.

[@scottmanley]

I will have to take a look at this

[@Veptis]

In the press conference Elon said there are no sensors. I really want spaceX to release orbital data directly so we can photograph it or photograph a solar transit

[@TheAgamemnon911]

.98 perihelion makes it very unlikely we could ever observe a solar transit.

[@0cujo0]

Maybe a Jupiter or Saturn transit then? Could use an infrared telescope?

[@TheAgamemnon911]

even less likely. Infrared only works on things that aren't the same temperature as the cold void of space. Best bet of detecting the car is now radar - same as with asteroids. Although... it might be too small for even that and/or too far away most of the time.

[@Veptis]

Agamemnon well it really depends on your infrared spectrum. Ground based infrared telescopes have various detectors. Only a very view in the Midwave and longwave infrared wavelengths which you would use for thermal imaging. There are some infrared windows in our atmosphere. And you definitely can image Saturn and Jupiter in near infrared. They made shoemaker impact into Jupiter viable with infrared telescopes *on* earth.

[@tiagotiagot]

You might be able to at least see it's silhouette against Jupiter's heat.

[@Dumb-Comment]

1954: we will have flying cars in the future 2018: here is your "flying" car

[@scottjampa6374]

Dumb Comment wins

[@siyacer]

Let me guess, that single dislike is Joe Bennett.

[@Trespasser249]

they were not going to use any of these cores/side boosters from the falcon heavy launch - the reason for it is because they are somewhere between version block 3 and 4 and spacex is going to be retiring anything other then the new block 5 when it becomes active in april 2018. So to help get rid of these older boosters most of the upcoming launches won't have a landing attempt and the grid fins will be removed. Its simply easier to expend the core then it is to disassemble since according to Elon a lot of the parts are quite different.

[@EnseiMada]

He MUSk be very proud.

[@MiniGui98]

That was the very first time I actually took the time to look a live launch and oh boy every second was worth it. Now I'll be able to tell something to my grandchildren. Quite a unique experience.

[@pegasusted2504]

you were incorrect about the capabilities of the FH Scott. The F9 can lift 8,300KG to GTO in fully expendable mode, the FH can lift 26,700 KG to GTO in fully expendable mode. It can lift more than double, by a hundred kilograms, to Mars than the F9 can lift to GTO..... :~)

[@scottmanley]

But I was specifically comparing it against a full reusable Falcon Heavy where the core stage gets recovered.

[@pegasusted2504]

So reusable FH can lift the same to GTO that an expendable F9 can? If so that is good, it means they get all boosters back, as long as they don't miss their parking spot on the boat lol. Double landing was awesome and seeing the car in space, proper strange lol.....

[@Azivegu]

You also need to take into account the risk factor.More parts means more things that can go wrong. And landing three stages means that its possible that at least some of the stages do a lithobrake, which isn't great. So if it is a large payload, go for FH. But if you are within the 8ton limit, it may be better to go with an F9, less risk and just lose it.

[@Humblyours23]

I think Elon said they can build the heavy for about 90 million dollars, F9 is about 60 million. So there still seems to be a lot of value there from a cost per kilo standpoint.

[@TheOneWhoMightBe]

And he also mentioned that the FH can send a payload direct to Pluto, no additional stages or slingshots needed. And then said that the BFS will be able to do SSTO (probably without a payload though) which just blows my mind, and might be flying tests in two years (Elon Time). The Solar System is opening up fast.

[@russell2449]

Thank you, that was packed with a lot of great info, well done, although imo a couple of times you showed a penchant for understatement, to say the least ;?D Like when you said, "We got to see our first look at Starman in the car, and that was a pretty cool moment." Pretty cool, really, lol? While I'll admit that the launch as a whole was THE big achievement, STILL you have to admit that putting the first, and probably only car ever into a solar orbit is not only historical but also likely never to be repeated, so to experience that LIVE is quit special, imo. But what I found most enjoyable, hilarious and mind-boggling was the sight of life imitating art, on several levels, yet also in a manner I'm sure no one ever dreamed possible before Musk first announced it. The first and most unbelievable was of course inspired by the opening scene from that iconic 80s film Heavy Metal, with the 1960 Corvette flying through space. Second is that their playing of David Bowie's Space Oddity, not only a classic but THE singularly most appropriate choice for Starman's journey (one only wishes there were solar panels to keep the battery charged so that it could play on for millennia, lol). Third was a minor yet again brilliantly chosen bit of pop culture, the DON'T PANIC emblazoned on the nav screen, that made me lmfao (although perhaps only Douglas Adam's fans will truly appreciate it ;?). Later a thought occurred to me - I wonder if they stashed a towel somewhere on board, like inside the suit maybe? That way if in some distant future an alien race were to stumble upon this most bizarre and unlikely craft orbiting out there in space, when they find the towel they will know that we humans were indeed a quite frood species, and then they will be sad that they missed us...

[@darranrowe174]

I still find it amusing that the orbit was supposed to be between Earth and Mars, and it almost got as far out as Ceres.

[@gordonrichardson2972]

With space trajectories, a small difference in burn-time can make a big difference in the resultant orbit.

[@jodomoe2264]

Why? They exceeded their performance targets. That's awesome.

[@darranrowe174]

Jodomo, and that is why it is amusing. The target was to get the aphelion to be somewhere around 1.5AU, they managed to get it to an estimated 2.61AU. That is just shy of Ceres' average of 2.77AU and actually past the perihelion of 2.56AU and around half of Jupiter's average of 5.2AU. So it is amusing and fun and exciting and everything in between because they didn't only just go slightly past one planet, they went all the way to the next (dwarf) planet. Gordon Richardson, yes and this makes you appreciate that a small difference in burn time can make a big difference in the resultant orbit. It made the aphelion one entire AU further out than the target. I really thought it was great.

[@josephneider7332]

Thanks for bringing attention to the rereleased launch video composition.

[@Bryophytan]

What has the world come to? Launching cars into space... Can we see a kerbal version?!

[@sergey1519]

Scrub Chan look on Hazardish channel

[@Maadhawk]

Things to consider using falcon heavy vs falcon 9 all-in, cost of manufacture of each rocket core, cost of fuel 1 core vs 3, cost of refurbishment of core after recovery. If cost of 3 cores fuel and refurbishment is less than the cost of one core and fuel with no recovery then using the falcon heavy for those very large 8 ton payloads makes sense. That said, with 3 cores, you have 3 times the chance that one core might have something go wrong and be lost anyway.

[@megagame]

some alien are going to very confused.

[@MegaAwesomeNick]

I spent so much of yesterday just sitting in a chair watching the starman feed to classical music and musing on the ridiculousness of our existence.

[@pietreks3409]

Scott, you should mention cancellation of human-rated missions on FH. It's important news.

[@scottmanley]

I did in yesterday’s video.

[@josephgroves3176]

Scott Manley it's a shame, cos BFR will take years. Now the SLS will beat them back to the moon. Now it's reusable, why not use FH to do everything BFR does, modularly? It would save billions and years

[@sodalitia]

What do you mean, by modularly? BFR has bigger fuel tanks, better wieght to thrust ratio, its way simpler than FH so its less likely something goes wrong, it has refueling in space capablity. If you think that strapping a few FH in space and refuel them in space with no fuel crossfeed is feaseable and cheap you are wrong. Without refueling in orbit you just go to mars with many expensive, almost empty F9 rockets. And if by some leap of luck you get all of them to Mars, how exactly are you going to land them there? With grid fins in 1% of athmospheric pressure? And in regard to cargo, you might as well strapp 20 motorcyles toghether and call it a truck.

[@thePronto]

+Scott Manley Agreed, but have yet to hear any follow up on that from SpaceX and no one picked up on it in the presser.

[@cokeforever]

Moon?))) it was never intended to be a target - nothing to do there...

[@Geno83MMX]

For recovering the central core, they can use a similar profile as Delta 4 Heavy and burn the 3 cores at the same time, but using a extended upper stage, or even a third stage! KSP FTW!

[@natange1436]

500km/h or 300mph

[@Maimgara]

Natange Sararas I

[@thewezz0809]

300mph

[@marcelopacheco2479]

FH 8 ton capability to GTO is the limit for triple RTLS profiles. With side RTLS + center ASDS payloads increases substantially. And with triple ASDS performance is far closer to expendable performance, like above 15 tons to GTO. But there aren't exactly that many GTO payloads above 12 tons right now.

[@TopiasAirasAmateur3DArtist]

"Don't panic" text is Hijackers guide to the galaxy reference

[@siyacer]

Hijacker's?

[@Endrushmi]

"Hijackers guide to the galaxy" Thanks for the new book idea!

[@nerfinator03]

Hitchiker's?

[@aelux4179]

No he means hijackers, it's the Bruce Willis remake of Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

[@AAhmou]

Hijackers.... Well that's the term that Vogons would use to describe hitchhickers

[@tedmac278]

Scott, I just watched the full interview of yesterday's interview with Musk and was surprised to hear him mention, very casually, that BFR will be SSTO capable. This is the first time I've heard said capability being touted... I may have just missed it. Anyway, I know you love crunching the numbers. Would you be able to do a video on what the SSTO BFR math might look like? I'm guessing payload would be very limited, but would love to see what kinda numbers might actually be achievable.

[@5Andysalive]

Tesla runs out of battery. Was this irony intended?

[@scottmanley]

Know any other cars that drive for 12 hours without running out of fuel?

[@realityveil6151]

Holy crap, 12 hours? On a single charge?

[@David-hx4gw]

I'm not a battery expert, but don't batteries run really poorly in cold conditions? I'm not even sure if the batteries being used are standard Tesla batteries or ones designed for space...

[@mcearl8073]

David Manning I’m not sure, however it was only powering cameras so I’d imagine even if they weren’t operating great they’d last long enough.

[@danilooliveira6580]

well... say a car that can go this far with a single tank of fuel LOL

[@seanbaskett5506]

Triethylborane/Triethylaluminum (or excuse me alumiNIUM). Just being given an opportunity to correct you is a huge honor. WE LOVE YOU SCOTT!

[@nilz1007]

also replay the launch with the apollo 13 soundtrack, its good

[@pouriet83]

Love your vids im always learning from you Scott. Ty and keep up the great work

[@Michiellovietsj]

Just catch it with a BFR

[@erric288]

I was lucky enough to watch the launch from Playalinda beach 3.5 miles from the pad. It was incredible and yes the two boosters coming down together like tandem Olympic divers was an awesome sight to see. The set of sonic booms was cool too.

[@rexthethoughtfult-rex4337]

So would you call that a "road" trip?

[@Thermalions]

Where we're going we don't need roads

[@PseudoReality28]

I get all teared up every time a rocket is launched and starts it's gravity turn. It's just the most beautiful thing imo.

[@tricross6]

Do you suppose they deflated the tires? If not, they should be able to hold pressure - for how long though?

[@scottmanley]

They should be fine for a long time, no gravity to make them look flat even if air leaks out

[@tricross6]

I bet the UV eats the rubber. People put covers on their RV tires to keep them from cracking when stored.

[@MinedMaker]

Wouldn't useless pressure vessels in the rocket present an unnecessary risk?

[@longlostwraith5106]

Oh, come on. Car tires are extremely reliable, two or three (if not more) orders of magnitude more reliable than the rocket they stuck it on. There would be no risk at all.

[@aelux4179]

LongLostWraith Your logic doesn't hold up. Yeah cars are more reliable on Earth but in space they are not very reliable at all.

[@brandenwilliams5031]

"i once caught a fairing this big!" I'm not sure if you made that or not but that is freaking hilarious.

[@bravo3000pirate]

legend say Elon Musk is in the car.

[@aelux4179]

I hope not, we kinda need him on Earth right now

[@cokeforever]

Bravo's retro and that robot he left for press-conference is just amazing!!)

[@whereswa11y]

Should have put a servo on the helmet, imagine the freak out if the head turned to face the camera after an hour. A Thumbs Up servo in the glove would have rocked too.

[@johnnyllooddte3415]

As elons BIGGEST critic.. All I can say is wowwww congratulations... Incredibly well done.. I'm glad it worked.. I'll save any negative comments for another day... AMAZING FEAT

[@TheRevWillNotBeTelevised]

Was a great watch - minus all the people cheering every 3 seconds, kinda made me want the thing to explode on the launchpad.

[@brian8353]

koopification good I wasn't the only one lol

[@randomnickify]

Cheering people was BEST part of this launch, you must be fun at parties :)

[@TheRevWillNotBeTelevised]

Generally at parties you don't have a thousand people screaming in your ear at random intervals while trying to hear what someone is saying. I'm all for cheering for something actually happening, not for what sounded like a bunch of aggressive screeching children screaming in your ear every 3 seconds while you are trying to watch and listen to the launch of a rocket.

[@jonharson]

"The louder you scream the bigger your bonus gets." *Screeching intensifies*

[@martijn9568]

The danger of explosions on a rocket is what unmanned missions great!

[@claudiusdunclius2045]

Scott, per your curiosity about effects of space exposure on materials: check out NASA’s LDEF (Long Duration Exposure Facility) work in the 1980s. LDEF was a satellite launched in 1984 by a Shuttle, with (among other things) many material samples just exposed to the conditions in LEO. Was supposed to be retrieved in 1985, but was long delayed by Challenger accident and finally recovered in 1990. I was doing graduate work at NASA at the time and recall watching live (internal NASA TV) as the Shuttle moved in to grapple it. You could see the damage to some of the materials that had been subjected to almost 7 years of LEO vacuum. The Roadster will have less atomic oxygen to contend with in deep space, but I wonder if it’ll see more solar weather and/or gamma rays in deep space than the LDEF did in LEO.

[@Nolys-bk4kd]

"Starman is now Waiting In The Sky" AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Laughter.

[@JacobTaylor216]

Literally could not keep the grin off my face during the livestream.

[@ransombot]

If I were testing a space suit van allen belt would would be the perfect dance floor. I'd put money on it having a rad sensor suit. Kinda missed an opportunity to put tesla solar cells in space and marketing them as the only solar system powering orbital cars.

[@WouterCloetens]

Next test payload should be a house with solar roof tiles, and a powerwall for when the panels are eclipsed by a body in space or when the roof is angled away from the sun.

[@PrinceAlhorian]

The most KERBAL thing I have ever seen in my life! Jeb and Valentina will be proud!

[@Extratyggis]

Elon Musk is the best at KSP

[@WardfamSix]

sle I

[@mmhoss]

None of the cores from the FH test flight were going to be reused regardless. They're upgrading to the Block 5 Falcon 9 in a few months regardless. That means that it's actually a good thing that they failed to recover the central core booster. Now they've got more data on how to better use fuel while inserting into geostationary transfer orbit, and therefore better land the center booster. It only cost them a booster that was not going to be reused anyways

[@SY-pm5ww]

50 views 50 likes well done KZbin

[@unlikelysalmon786]

S Y 50 views and 76 likes for me. :\

[@MrTeddy12397]

c'mon it's 2017 already

[@bigdream_dreambig]

I'm pretty sure in the after-interview Mr. Musk said that the space suit WAS one of their former test units, but it wasn't performing any testing function for this journey -- so no sensors, etc. He said it's pretty straightforward to test the suit on Earth in a vacuum chamber.

[@Lilpiip123]

The suit is not a test one... get ur facts right!!!

[@scottmanley]

I heard Musk say it was a qualification article

[@russdill]

He probably means it's been used for testing and qualification, past tense. He confirmed at the conference that the suit carried no sensors.

[@tybo09]

I watched this live on my office computer (violating my agency's streaming policy... LOL) and I think I may have interrupted my coworkers with my cheering... and I don't care. I had tears streaming down my face. I didn't get to see a Saturn V launch and I don't remember the first shuttle launch, but I totally remember this one! I can't say that I felt the way Cronkite felt when the Saturn V launched for the first time, but I think I understand how he felt.

[@MarcoRoepers]

Everything I wanted to know about this launch but I couldn't find on Dutch media. Thank you.

[@onevastanus]

It's pretty amazing what people can manage to do and I have to say I'm impressed. Problem though is that if we can do such things, why do we hardly ever do it? Why make it play music but not put solar panels? Surely we could get a live feed for the whole orbit, and so why not?

[@lmaoroflcopter]

Ais showed mr.steven docked on the west coast in LA. There was a call out during the central core reentry burn on the main webcast that went "defect on central core shutdown" or something along those lines, maybe that was why they ran low of fuel in the landing?

[@Ravlen1]

Hey Scott, this seems like a perfect kerbal opportunity. See how tinkering with the center core changes performance. All three at full thrust the whole time, or the center core running on 5 engines until booster separation, etc... It'd be interesting to see.