SpaceX launched the first Falcon Heavy mission in over three years

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is back in business. It has now launched the first Falcon Heavy mission in over three years. This is a towering rocket and the most powerful one currently in operation. The rocket is carrying the classified USSF-44 mission for the U.S. Space Force. It is also the first operational national security mission for Falcon Heavy. The mission took off from a launchpad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Earlier, launch was the Space Test Program-2 (STP-2) mission in June 2019. At that time, it carried experimental satellites on a demonstration flight for the Pentagon. Falcon Heavy’s base is reusable. However, the company landed just the side pair of the three rocket boosters. Its central core dropped into the ocean as traditional rockets do. The purpose was to meet the Space Force’s high-performance requirement for this mission. The hiatus in Falcon Heavy launches is attributable to the readiness of customers on its schedule. Incidentally, the company has completed three since the rocket’s debut in February 2018. SpaceX launches Falcon Heavy, the world’s most powerful rocket, on Space Force mission.

This original schedule of USSF-44 mission was for late 2020. There was plan for two other Falcon Heavy missions for this year – one for the Space Force and the other for NASA. However, customer payloads are also not ready yet. In fact, there is a backlog of about a dozen missions for Falcon Heavy still to come. SpaceX continues to launch its Falcon series of rockets at a high rate. The latest mission was the company’s record 50th launch this year and the company continues to work on the even larger Starship rockets that could replace them.

Some popular stories of this blogger –

Mystery surrounds the fate of Elon Musk’s proposed Hyperloop transportation technology from Los Angeles to San Francisco

Prince Harry founded the Invictus Games and the Invictus Games Foundation in 2014

Fifteen killed in a fire at a popular bar in the Russian city of Kostroma

Abandoned toy train coaches of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) to become restaurants at four stations

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres wants COP27 to close the ambition gap, the credibility gap and the solidarity gap

Tension mounts in the Korean Peninsula as South Korea scrambles 80 of its stealth jets

Eruption of volcano in Tonga led to a plume of ash and water that went about 31 to 50 miles above the surface of the Earth

UNESCO predicts the world famous glaciers might disappear by 2050 due to global warming

Floods and stormy weather batter Britain, temperatures plummet below freezing point in many rural parts of the north

President Barack Obama vows to help send people to Mars in the next 15 years

Colonization of Red Planet Mars is being talked about and President Barack Obama has vowed to help send people to Mars within the next 15 years. He has indicated that the U.S. government would link up with private companies 'to build new habitats that can sustain and transport astronauts on long-duration missions in deep space.'
He has set a tentative goal of sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and returning them safely to Earth. The ultimate objective is to remain there for an extended time.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 11 October 2016.

President Obama also went on to say that the US is working with its commercial partners to build new habitats that can sustain and transport astronauts on long-duration Mars mission in deep space. Such missions will help learn how humans can live far away from Earth - that is something that will be vital for the long journey to Mars.
Already the California-based SpaceX, headed by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, also has plans to send people to Mars in the coming years. But, it has recently faced an unsuccessful launch last month that cost the company a $200-million satellite.
anyway, a journey to Mars would take about nine months, depending on rocket velocity. A high-speed trip could take as little as 130 days. But, the issue of taking enough food and water into space to feed astronauts on a months or years-long mission to deep space is going to be a major logistical problem.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


Some more interesting links -

Taiwan struck by Typhoon Megi, third typhoon in two weeks

Terrorist alarm in Uran was the figment of a 12-year-old schoolgirl's imagination

Tourist season in Kaziranga National Park to start from October 1 instead of November 1


Moody is off mood – Na Buzz had fooled him again (satire)

Didi’s version of ABCD - cycle to work to bypass potholes (satire)

Goddess Durga and her kids wait for the annual bash (satire)


9300 people killed in Russian airstrikes in Syria during last year

MH17 flight shot down by rocket over Ukraine in 2014 was work of pro-Moscow rebels

Shooting in Burlington - gunman on the run after shooting dead four women in a shopping center


Mark Wahlberg talks about movie on Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico

Adele creates a record - her latest album 25 has gone platinum in the US

Movie memorabilia go under the hammer - Batman's batpod fetches £312,000

SpaceX to land a robot Dragon on Mars in 2018

Mission Mars is set to happen earlier than expected because SpaceX has readied plans to send an unmanned Dragon spacecraft to Mars as early as 2018 and, it would be a first step in achieving founder Elon Musk's goal to fly people to another planet. If successful, SpaceX will beat all other world space agencies in landing a new robot on Mars.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 28 April 2016.

NASA aims to send human mission to Mars in the 2030s and it will provide technical support for SpaceX's first foray, known as Red Dragon. However, it will not extend any financial assistance to SpaceX's Mars mission. However, SpaceX is upgrading the capsules to carry astronauts, with test flights to the station scheduled for 2017, under a separate NASA contract worth up to $2.6 billion.
NASA has indicated that SpaceX could provide valuable entry, descent and landing data for NASAs journey to Mars. The SpaceX program is intended to develop technologies needed for human transportation to Mars, a long-term aim for Musk's privately held company. It will make available details of its Mars program at the International Astronautical Congress in September.
The Dragon 2 is designed to land anywhere in the solar system and the Red Dragon Mars mission is the first test flight. SpaceX, at present, transports cargo versions of its Dragon capsule to and from the International Space Station under a $2 billion resupply services contract with NASA.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

Some more interesting links -

Didi wants to move around fast and wants a solution (satire)

Lord Shiva intrigued by the writing on the walls (satire)

Moody hates hotels and feels more at home in his aircraft (satire)


Taj Mumbai welcomes Prince William and Kate, the fourth generation of British monarchy

Huge 26ft python found in Penang - could become a new a Guinness Record holder

Lok Sabha ethics committee probing Narada sting feels the videos are genuine


ISIS still holding 30 workers out of 300 kidnapped from cement factory in Dumeir

Another Bangladeshi blogger killed in Dhaka because of his views on religion

Florida hunters bag a 15-foot 800-pound massive alligator


James Cameron, writer director of Avatar, promises his fans four sequels

'Deadpool' sequel planned and in the pipeline with Ryan Reynolds

Indonesian pop star dies after being bitten by a cobra on stage

Sir Richard Branson back with his Virgin Galactic to send men into space

Sir Richard Branson is back in business to relaunch his Virgin Galactic project and send passengers into space. Virgin will charge passengers $250,000 for a short journey into zero gravity and enjoy a glimpse of the planet Earth from the edge of space.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 19 February 2016.

Sir Branson's venture had suffered a devastating setback in 2014 after the death of one pilot and serious injury to a second after the spacecraft crashed on a powered test flight. It happened after SpaceShipTwo fired up its rocket following a high-altitude drop from Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo mothership.
It crashed over California's Mojave Desert and the accident was attributed to the co-pilot unlocking a braking system too early.
Therefore, the project's new SpaceShipTwo will now be unveiled by Sir Richard Branson - it is a six-passenger space plane and it will take thrill-seekers and commercial customers on five-minute hops into suborbital space, reaching altitudes of about 100-Km.
Incidentally, despite the setback Virgin Galactic is going ahead with plans to build its own space launchers, including the new passenger vehicle and LauncherOne rockets that will be designed to lift small satellites. These activities are expected to commence from next year.
Apart from Branson, there are others who are working on sending paying passengers into space. They are SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
Sir Richard Branson wants to, ultimately, build a hotel in space.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

Some more interesting links -

Moody wants bows and arrows to eliminate Big Daddy (satire)

Didi and her books in Book Fair (satire)

Lord Shiva waits for his patisapta (satire)


Brazil declares war on mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus

The FMCG world belongs to Baba Ramdev - worship noodles instead of yoga

Beggar of Mehsana with a heart of gold – gifts gold earrings to 10 poor girls


“The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar” - Disney’s upcoming television movie

'Avatar 2', sequel to 'Avatar' of 2009 expected to release in December 2017

Aamir Khan no longer the face of Incredible India


Bomb attack kills 9 persons in Cairo near road leading to Egyptian pyramids

Woman with fake passport in a British Airways flight from Ibiza leads to panic

Tourists to Morocco told by Foreign Office to be vigilant about possible terror attacks

Elon Musk finally gets it right - SpaceX rocket lands back on Earth vertically

#InternationalSpaceStation #SpaceX #ElonMusk Billionaire Elon Musk has resons to cheer because aster the June's disaster his SpaceX has taken a huge step forward towards an era of far cheaper space launches. SpaceX has succeeded in landing its rocket vertically back on Earth after sending satellites into orbit. This is seen as a major achievement in developing cheaper, more accessible space travel.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 22 December 2015.

The three earlier attempts of SpaceX rockets to land on a platform at sea had failed. In fact, the June flight exploded while on its way to re-supply the International Space Station.
When the 15-storey Falcon 9 rocket touched down at Florida's Cape Canaveral, there was celebrations all around among the SpaceX people.
The first-stage booster landed on a giant X after successfully sending 11 satellites into orbit for US telecoms company OrbComm. The landing happened 10 minutes after lift-off and was six miles away on a reinforced concrete surface.
SpaceX is the brainchild of Elon Musk, the billionaire and founder of Tesla electric cars. He has hopes of dramatically reducing the launch costs by reusing rockets. This concept would revolutionize space travel and open the gate to more people. In return, its pioneers will make a lot of money.
The present practice is to jettison the rocket boosters after a couple of minutes and land in the sea from where they are recovered and eventually refurbished. This is a costly and time-consuming process.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

Rice on rooftops – a masterplan (satire)

Didi to gift soaps and towels to kids (satire)

Saraswati and Lakshmi and their girlish talks (satire)


Juhi Chawla learns how to ride a scooty

All female pop-group Moranbong Band cancels China goodwill tour

Eagles Of Death Metal to perform at the Olympia Theatre on 16 February


No country liquor in Bihar from April - only Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL)

Thieves make away with sandalwood trees from Santiniketan

76% of butterflies vanishing in Britain - a result of climate change


1,000 British troops and Special forces going to Libya to eliminate ISIS jihadists

United States faced with Syrian refugee influx - nearly 100,000 have entered since 2012

Scotland Yard launches biggest ever crackdown on guns in London

SpaceX observatory DSCOVR to keep track of solar storms from one million miles away

#spacex #falcon9 #DSCOVR #solarstorm #NOAA #NASA It was third time lucky for SpaceX when it succeeded in launching a solar-storm lookout point a million miles away as envisaged by former Vice President Al Gore. This observatory blasted off on an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket, to hoist the spacecraft for NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Air Force.
It was the third try in four days as reported in foxnews.com dated 11 February 2015.
Al Gore had dreamed up the idea for an environmentally conscious, Earth-gazing satellite 17 years ago. He was present for the sunset launch. In fact, he was present at the two previous failed attempts since he was eager to see his brainchild finally soar.
In the opinion of Elon Musk, SpaceX's billionaire founder and chief executive, sending the observatory on its $340 million mission was the main event since it represented the first deep-space mission for SpaceX.
The intention of the observatory nicknamed DSCOVR (pronounced discover) is to provide advance warnings of solar outbursts that could disrupt life here on Earth.
It is understood that DSCOVR will take nearly four months to travel one million miles, four times farther than the moon, to the so-called Lagrange point. This is a gravity-neutral position in direct line with the sun and, being at this lookout location, 92 million miles from the sun, it will be able to provide advance warnings of incoming geomagnetic storms that could disrupt power and communications on Earth.

SpaceX experiment with Falcon rocket soft landing fails

#SpaceX #Dragon #ElonMusk #Falcon9 The American SpaceX firm has revealed that its experiment with soft landing of its Falcon rocket on a floating sea platform was not successful. The vehicle was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on a mission to send a cargo capsule to the International Space Station.
However, once the first-stage of the rocket completed its part of this task, it tried to make a controlled return and hit the platform hard – this was confirmed by the company CEO Elon Musk via tweet.
SpaceX will keep trying in order to prove this type of capability because, it would be a method to reduce the costs dramatically because it would pave the way for normally disposable rockets to be recovered, refurbished and re-used. If successful it would mean tremendous savings in the cost of flights.
Moreover, it might also point to new ways of bringing spacecraft back down to Earth in general and change the way we look at space flight at present.
The present system is that rockets have an expendable architecture. Once airborne, they discard engines and empty propellant tanks to save the weight so that their upper-stage, including the satellite payload, can jump to orbit. The unwanted hardware is discarded and heads to Earth and disintegrates en-route and, hence, an expensive rocket is required for each launch – that is what SpaceX is aiming to do, to eliminate such wastages.