[img]http://www.spacex.com/assets/img/toutFalcon_c.jpg[/img]
Lets hope this develops to something that can transport humans to the ISS or something awesome like that.
[quote]
[B]The Californian SpaceX company says it plans to launch the most powerful rocket since the Apollo era next year.[/B]
The Falcon 9-Heavy is a beefed up version of the vehicle the firm will soon use to send a robotic cargo ship to the space station.
[B]The new rocket should be capable of putting more than 53 tonnes (117,000lb) of payload in a low-Earth orbit - more than twice that of the space shuttle.[/B]
CEO Elon Musk said the rocket would be made safe enough to launch people.
[B]"It is designed to meet the Nasa human-rating standards,"[/B] he said. "So, for example, it is designed to structural safety margins that are 40% above the actual flight loads it would expect to encounter."
The first flight will take place from the Vandenberg Air Force Base with future lift-offs also planned at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Last year, SpaceX became the first private company in history to put a spacecraft in orbit and return it intact. This capsule - known as Dragon - splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
The unmanned flight was part of a series of demonstrations the Hawthorne-based firm is working through to prove its technology is reliable enough and safe enough to be allowed near the space station.
Although it has received seed funding from the US space agency (Nasa), SpaceX says it has spent less than a billion dollars so far on its development programme - a remarkably low figure by any comparison.
The Falcon 9-Heavy ties together the core stages of three standard Falcon 9s. Those cores combined will host 27 individual rocket motors - upgraded versions of the motors currently built for the standard Falcon.
[B]The thrust at lift-off is expected to be 16 meganewtons (3.8 million lbf). This is something like 15 Boeing 747s taking off at the same time.[/B]
Mr Musk said the vehicle could put in orbit a few hundred km above the Earth a mass equivalent to "more than a fully loaded Boeing 737 with 136 passengers, luggage and fuel".
"That's humongous," he told reporters during a media conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC.
"It's more capability than any vehicle in history apart from the Saturn 5 [Moon rocket]. So, it opens up a range of possibilities for government and commercial customers that simply aren't present with the current lifting capacity."
Mr Musk claimed the Falcon 9-Heavy would also be a breakthrough in terms of the cost. Missions would be priced at $80m-$125m, meaning each pound of payload could be delivered to orbit for around $1,000.
[email]Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk[/email]
[/quote]
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12975872[/url]
[url]http://www.spacex.com/falcon_heavy.php[/url]
[img]http://www.spacex.com/assets/img/callouts2.jpg[/img]
Wow, only a billion dollars. That's pretty cheap considering it was a private project.
To infinity and beyond the moon!
I fucking pray that this company doesn't die.
This rocket costs less than the fund needed to manufacture a B2 Spirit, which is pretty impressive
$80m-$125m. Holy shit. Being private this means any company with the money for it can put stuff up there. And not just stuff. Tons of stuff.
Privately funded moonbase anyone?
$100 million for 50+ tons to LEO is ridiculously cheap compared to past launches. The Shuttle costs something like a billion dollars a launch and doesn't have that capacity. $1,000 a pound to LEO is unheard of.
SpaceX is fucking awesome.
spacex have my babies
edit: in space preferably
rockets look like metallic dongs that have to penetrate the earth's massive gaping vagina
This, combined with NASA's plans testing VASMIR rockets...
Space is...looking so god damned sexy right now(although it always has).
[QUOTE=sami-elite;28999108]$80m-$125m. Holy shit. Being private this means any company with the money for it can put stuff up there. And not just stuff. Tons of stuff.
Privately funded moonbase anyone?[/QUOTE]
Private orbiting resort and casino.
[QUOTE=HeadshotDCS;28999319]This, combined with NASA's plans testing VASMIR rockets...
Space is...looking so god damned sexy right now(although it always has).[/QUOTE]
vasimr* They have already tested it, though I don't think they have any plans for the rocket anymore as I haven't seen any new news about it for the last two years.
This company is just [i]spa[/i]sex.
I wonder when they get the first ramjet-based shuttles into prototype-stage? Those should be by far more cheaper and easier to send into orbit
The Falcon 9 flies? Stick three of them together.
I like that kind of thinking.
I want to cum in space
[QUOTE=OvB;28999429]Private orbiting resort and casino.[/QUOTE]
Talk about high rollers. :smug:
[QUOTE=The DooD;29000817]I want to cum in space[/QUOTE]
But according to newtons 3rd law, the force of your ejecting sperm would cause you to slam backwards into the ships wall, causing it to spin out of orbit and hit a small rural village
[QUOTE=DarkSpider;29001497]But according to newtons 3rd law, the force of your ejecting sperm would cause you to slam backwards into the ships wall, causing it to spin out of orbit and hit a small rural village[/QUOTE]
Well... that's just not how [I]anything [/I]works.
Hooray for privately funded space travel!
[QUOTE=OvB;28999429]Private orbiting resort and casino.[/QUOTE]
62,000 mile high club?
[QUOTE=doonbugie2;28999460]vasimr* They have already tested it, though I don't think they have any plans for the rocket anymore as I haven't seen any new news about it for the last two years.[/QUOTE]
Pardon my misspelling with this awesome article
[url]http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/11/nasa-and-ad-astra-team-up-to-test-vasimr-plasma-rocket-in-space/[/url]
in a few years they'll be a huge space tourism company.
So it can carry 1/2 the payload of a Saturn V rocket at 1/10 the cost. Sounds like we have a winner.
[QUOTE=DarkSpider;29001497]But according to newtons 3rd law, the force of your ejecting sperm would cause you to slam backwards into the ships wall, causing it to spin out of orbit and hit a small rural village[/QUOTE]
But the force of the sperm hitting the other side of the ship negates it.
[QUOTE=Diet Kane;29012116]Aeiou.[/QUOTE]
And of course we all know who the first person to rent a room at said private moon casino would be.
That's right, John Madoff.
[QUOTE=xxxkiller;29012051]But the force of the sperm hitting the other side of the ship negates it.[/QUOTE]
what the fuck are you two going on about.
SpaceX is the last hope for colonizing the moon. [b]Fuck you nasa[/b] :mad:
[QUOTE=avergejoe;29012744]SpaceX is the last hope for colonizing the moon. [b]Fuck you nasa[/b] :mad:[/QUOTE]
hey you whippersnapper, nasa's still got some sweet moves ya know
just cause we don't have none of yer youngin's cost efficacy or whatever it was you was on about, don't mean we still can't do the jitterbug in our space suits!
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