SpaceX 1st Falcon Heavy Launch Date: Sept 6 13:30 (18:30 utc)

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Watching Starman right now. Half expected the carā€™s lights to pop on in the Earthā€™s shadowā€¦ohā€¦looks like heā€™s just in the shadow of the vehicle/booster whatever the whole assembly is attached to.

Iā€™ve figured out who his hot date is on Mars. It can only be No 6.

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My theory is he saw the first half of The Martian, became sentient, and feels like he is going to save Watney. Should we tell him he doesnā€™t have retro rockets to stop when he gets there (or does he?)ā€¦

Conference!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KORTP545vAc

  • Appears the core hit the back of the drone ship at 300 mph due to a lack of fuel needed to relight 3 of the engines (the higher G recovery method attempted in the previous mission). One engine did light but the other outer two did not;
    ā€“ Musk is hoping that the cameras survived and there will be blooper footage;

  • Burn to Mars will occur assuming the propellant doesnā€™t freeze, the O2 doesnā€™t bleed off or the electronics do not get fried;

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LOLā€¦heā€™s ā€œtripping ballsā€ over the fact that his Roadster is up thereā€¦classicā€¦!

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I didnā€™t know they had a parachute on the fairingā€¦interestingā€¦

Perhaps the Roadster is really a rover. The kids are almost as fascinated as dad. 7 year old Olivia said, ā€œIf Starman steps on the gas pedal, he can go faster to Mars.ā€

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Hahaā€¦yeah, I just got done showing the entire launch and recovery of the boosters to my son and his cousin. They were full of questions. What a great opportunity to talk about space with kidsā€¦I hope every school shows this to their students tomorrow.

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Watching the SpaceX press conference and realizing just how seat-of-the-pants these guys are operating at times. Which is exciting, because that lets me believe that there are other organizations with the same wherewithal.

Starmanā€™s battery, unfortunately, will run out of juice in about 12 hours. Then heā€™s on his own for a few million years.

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Printed on the circuit board of a car in deep space. -Elon Musk

starmans-roadster-circuit-board

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That will be sadā€¦Iā€™d kill to be able to see updates on Starman for the next few years. Wish they could have put in a small trickle charging solar array or something.

#godspeedstarman

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Just to keep things in perspective, this was 48 years ago, in a bigger (expendable) rocket, carrying 3 humans to the moon.

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IMG_4374

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Musk is really like that. In a press conference he doesnā€™t come off as being all that smart.

I was wondering if they were gonna live-cast the burn from orbit but I think that would be happening right now?

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Summons graph of NASA Budget as percentage of GDP over time

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Video of the launch with binaural audio or some such. Sounds amazing.

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Wow! Nice!

Summons graph of NASA Budget as percentage of GDP over time

In the 1960s, it was huge. Today, itā€™s peanuts.

It was a unique sight watching both boosters flare in the sky like that. Never seen anything like it before. Canā€™t wait for a Heavy night launch!

Theyā€™re going to have to alter The Expanse now and show them finding his Tesla since it goes so close to Ceres.