SpaceX is mere hours from the maiden flight of its massive Falcon Heavy rocket, which CEO Elon Musk has described as 'the most powerful operational rocket by a factor of two.'
A freshly posted animated video from Monday depicts the ideal scenario for the test flight, yet Musk has repeatedly cautioned over the past year that a catastrophic failure—a colossal explosion—is a distinct possibility.
The animation, scored by David Bowie's 'Life on Mars' (the mission's destination, after all), opens with the towering Falcon Heavy—a triple-Falcon 9 assembly—poised for liftoff at Kennedy Space Center. Moments before the 27 Merlin engines ignite, a glimpse of the payload appears: a Tesla Roadster perched atop the rocket. As Musk noted, he finds 'the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future' deeply appealing.
Once the countdown finishes, the Falcon Heavy thunders to life, producing 5 million pounds of thrust—equivalent to 18 Boeing 747 jets—as it leaves the launch pad. Mirroring earlier Falcon 9 flights, the Heavy's boosters are designed to come back to Earth for refurbishment, a cornerstone of SpaceX's strategy to reduce spaceflight expenses.
In the video, the two lateral boosters descend nearly simultaneously, touching down at Kennedy Space Center. The central core, having traveled farther, returns slightly later and lands on an autonomous SpaceX drone vessel stationed in the Atlantic.
Should the second stage perform as intended, 'at max velocity the Roadster will travel 11 km/s (7mi/s) and travel 400 million km (250 million mi) from Earth,' flying past Mars and settling into a heliocentric orbit.
SpaceX emphasizes that even though this particular payload is a car rather than astronauts, 'Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the moon or Mars.'
All eyes are on Tuesday's highly awaited launch. Let's hope Musk doesn't need to include this attempt in his compilation of rocket mishaps.
The launch opportunity runs from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time on February 6. Tune into the live stream for an undeniably spectacular event—regardless of the outcome.
