ColdFusion - Falcon Heavy Makes History - Cheaper Spaceflight

Starting point is 00:00:00 You are watching Cold Fusion TV. Welcome to another Cold Fusion video. So they've finally done it. The Space X team have just successfully launched and landed the Falcon Heavy rocket. This is the largest rocket in operation and during the launch, the atmosphere was electric. The Falcon Heavy consists of 27 engines with 5 million pounds of thrust. That's as much as 18 Boeing 747s. In fact, it's so much thrust that there's no need to run the engine.

Starting point is 00:00:47 no need to run the engines at max capacity during the launch. Instead, the thrust is throttled and optimized throughout the flight. So here's the plan for the test launch mission. The Falcon Heavy rocket would take off from Kennedy Space Center and then release its payload out into space. Two of the rocket's boosters would be programmed to return back to Cape Canaveral to be recycled, while a third booster, which will be traveling much too fast to make the Cape, would be landing on a floating platform 500 kilometers offshore. With the boosters measuring 16 stories in height, it was a toll task. The Falcon Heavy is essentially three Falcon 9s

Starting point is 00:01:21 strapped together with some modifications carried out, but it wasn't as easy to get flying as it may first seem. According to Elon at a press conference post-launch, there had to be alterations to the boosters and the main core had to be almost completely custom built. Because the initial idea was just like, oh, you know, you stick on two first stages of side boosters, how hard can it be?

Starting point is 00:01:42 It's like way hard. We had to redesign the center core completely. This was due to the changes and forces and hence stresses endured by the new setup. There was 10 million pounds of force in some areas. The challenge was so drastic that the team considered abandoning the project three times. But it's a good thing that they stuck with it because now the Falcon Heavy is the largest and most powerful rocket available capable of carrying twice the payload of its closest competitor. The mission was largely a success and the payload was delivered without a hitch. Speaking of the payload, it was pretty interesting. It happened to be one

Starting point is 00:02:18 of Elon Musk's original cherry red Tesla roadsters, with a mascot dubbed Starman, who was looking pretty chill wearing the SpaceX spacesuit. Starman and his Tesla now will be getting thrust into deep space on its way to an elliptical orbit around Mars for about a billion years. Meanwhile, the 16-story tall rocket boosters returned down to Earth in awe-inspiring fashion. All didn't go exactly according to plan though. Two of the three rockets required to turn the main stage back to Earth failed, causing the main stage rocket to be lost. It slammed into the ocean at over 400 kilometres an hour, 100 metres away from the floating barge. Regardless, the launch was hailed as a success and is a huge step in the road towards regular space launches, as now the price

Starting point is 00:03:22 has been cut by four and a half times. For the equivalent competing rocket, United Launch Alliance's Delta 4 Heavy, which is less powerful, costs around 400 million. And the Falcon Heavy? $90 million. And this is one-tenth the cost of NASA's planned space launch system that's in development to venture out to the Moon and Mars. The main cost savings here come from the fact that the Falcon Heavy is a reusable design. One of the aims of the mission was to collect vast amounts of data in order to perfect

Starting point is 00:03:50 launch procedures. The end goal was to make such launches commonplace and as safe as aircraft travel, which is the safest it's ever been, by the way. In the press conference, Elon stated that the Falcon Heavy, opens up a new class of payload and can send cargo all the way to Pluto if we wanted, no gravity sling needed. He states that this could encourage other countries and companies to do bigger and better. He wants a new space race. But I think it's going to open up a sense of possibility. I think it's going to encourage other companies and

Starting point is 00:04:24 countries to say hey if SpaceX which is a commercial company can do this, they could do it too. So I think it's going to encourage other countries and companies to to raise their sights and say, hey, we can do bigger and better, which is great. We want a new space race. Elon also did mention that the BFR method is the way forward, but this Falcon Heavy launch gave him more confidence in that project. And as a side note, it's kind of strange. On videos like this, I often get people commenting that scientific discovery is somehow a zero-sum game.

Starting point is 00:04:53 They say, why waste money on something like this when you could be spending that money eradicating cancer? It's a strange worldview position, but I believe that engineers and scientists are free to follow their passions and can work on different things at once, and it's not to mention that progress in space exploration can have spin-off effects. For example, we wouldn't have aircraft anti-icing technology, or the digital image sensor in your smartphone or solar panels in their current form if it weren't for NASA's space program. But in closing off this video, as I thought about the Falcon Heavy launch, it's just really

Starting point is 00:05:25 insane that this company was the result of a private startup, not some government initiative, it was a very hard road. You know, there are American heroes who don't like this idea. Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan, have both testified against commercial spaceflight in the way that you're developing it, and I wonder what you think of that. I was very sad to see that. Those guys are heroes of mine, so it's really tough. I wish they would come and visit and see the hardware that were doing here.

Starting point is 00:05:57 And I think that would change their mind. They inspired you to do this, didn't they? Yes. And to see them casting stones in your direction. It's difficult. SpaceX was so close to failing when they attempted to launch their first rocket, the Falcon One. They failed three times and they had just barely enough money for one more try. It turned out that the third failure was caused by a two-second glitch in the timing.

Starting point is 00:06:29 If that fourth launch hadn't worked, that would have been it. We would have not had the resources to mount a fifth. And on September 28th, 2008, on the fourth and final attempt, SpaceX became the first private company to launch a liquid-fueled rocket that could reach orbit. Fast forward a decade later, and then making history again. And the future looks at the very least exciting, with bigger plans on the horizon for the BFR. This whole story makes me smile, and I wish the SpaceX team more success in the future. It's great innovation, and I think it's good for this generation to see.

Starting point is 00:07:01 things like this. Anyway, thanks for watching. This has been DeGogo. You've been watching Coldfusion. If you've just stumbled across this channel, feel free to subscribe. And of course, I'll catch you again soon for the next video, which hopefully it will be how big is Honda. So stay tuned. Cheers guys, have a good one.

ColdFusion - Falcon Heavy Makes History - Cheaper Spaceflight

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