Elon Musk Sends Car to Space!

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Falcon Heavy consists of three Falcon 9 rockets strapped together, and together they have double the power of any other rocket in existence.

 

It blasted into space at 3:45 PM ET from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, the same launch pad NASA used in many of its launches, including the Apollo 11 mission which sent the first astronauts to the moon.

 

Two of the rocket boosters returned safely and smoothly to the launchpad. This means they can be reused, which helps reduce the cost of sending rockets into space. This was a first. SpaceX has successfully managed to get single Falcon 9 rocket boosters to return to the landing pad before, but returning two of them is trickier.

 

The third rocket booster was supposed to land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, but instead it hit the Atlantic Ocean at about 300 miles per hour. It was about the length of a football field away from the ship, but the force of the impact took out two engines on the drone ship and showered it with debris.

 

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The red Tesla is now flying through space with a dummy called “Starman” behind the wheel. And it’s blasting “Life on Mars” by David Bowie.

Musk intended to send the car into an elliptical orbit of the sun stretching from the orbit of the earth to the orbit of Mars. The car was sent further out into space than predicted, however. The car is now headed into the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and may fly near Ceres, a dwarf planet in this area.

 

Even though SpaceX has built and successfully launched the most powerful rocket ever, they are in the process of building an even more powerful rocket. It’s called the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR). Musk envisions using this rocket for quick flights around earth, and to send people to Mars.

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Updated February 7, 2018

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