…No, not me. But a plucky mannequin, inevitably called Spaceman, has just left the Cape aboard a red, electric Tesla roadster car, bound for an orbit around the Sun and a close encounter with Mars. I’m talking about the payload of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy maiden mission, whose launch I’ve followed with the same giddy excitement of a child on Christmas Eve, or myself a few weeks ago when I visited the Johnson Space Center.
Want to see what I mean? Click the video below and marvel at the beauty of what 6,000 geeks have accomplished. If the image of the two boosters landing in perfect synchrony is an omen of our future, I can’t wait to get there.
Godspeed, Spaceman.
Thank you, Fabrizio. I live in the world where I wouldn’t have seen this without you. Watching San Remo though. 😀
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If I were in power, space launches would be on prime time TV and not sodding Sanremo!
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And with Bowie, it was goosepimply to see that car in space. A faint whiff of things to come. Thanks for sharing.
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My pleasure. That, and the two boosters landing. It was goosebumps galore, at least for me, but I’m glad I’m not the only one!
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I wonder if the next SpaceX will send up a parking attendant to ticket Musk’s Tesla!!!
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Well they sent enough Hitchiker’s Guide reference up there to last ages, if they sent a dolphin dressed as an attendant it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest!
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‘Take your protein pills and put your helmet on,’. This is the start of one hell of a ride! Exciting times. And as you mentioned in a prior post, space brings humans closer. That has to be the most important thing on earth right now.
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Yup, until the next Trump tweet, but up until then…
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Great post, great launch!
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Indeed it’s been!
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Wow wow!!! What an achievement the guys at SpaceX have made! It always gives me goosebumps watching this kind of technological advancement. People used to say the sky is the limit. But the truth is the space is the final frontier.
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I wholeheartedly agree and subscribe, Bama. I mean, look at those two big boosters landing. That is incredible. To think this could be normality in 30-40 years’ time, to think this could be our current “popping down to Heathrow for a flight to Belgium”, it’s incredible.
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I think I might start calling you Spaceman, Fabrizio. 😉 Thanks for sharing this news.
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Ha! Thanks for the compliment!
I know it’s not strictly travel writing but when a private company sends the most powerful rocket right now in space, with a car on it, a towel and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in the glovebox, in an orbit around the Sun with an apogee far enough to make people think they could’ve gotten to Mars, AND recycles the boosters (and almost gets the core rocket to land on a ship)… I’ve have to shout it from my rooftoop and who cares if it’s just a shack. As you can guess, I’ve been pretty excited about it all day!
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Finally made time to watch the video and have to admit to some shivers of excitement myself. The lift-offs always get me, but the whole event is pretty amazing. I have to look up the whole car thing; I don’t totally get that part. Thanks for sharing your giddiness with us!
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Thank you Lexi for watching! The car bit boils down to one thing: normally, first flights have some sort of ballast onboard, say a big fat lump of concrete. Apparently somebody thought that it’d be cool to send Musk’s car instead, and to plop it in an orbit around the sun with an apogee far enough to get it into the asteroid belt. Throw in a mannequin dressed with the new SpaceX pressure suit, a lot of Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy references and it’s done! SpaceX has a Youtube live broadcast of views from the car, it’ll go on until it loses signal. Isn’t that delightfully geeky? The only improvement I can think of is that it’d been even cooler if Musk hadn’t known about that! Can you imagine mission controll telling him “Yo Elon see that car? Well it’s yours, and I believe the remote for your house’s electric gate is still in the cupholder…And your Earth, Wind & Fire CD is in the stereo. Sorry!”
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I looked up some more photos and articles; it is surreal to see that car hurtling through space!
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Yes it is! And to me, it’s thrilling!
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Great that you are helping spread the word, Fabrizio. As a NASA veteran the achievement — particularly the twin boosters landing — brought tears to my eyes.
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I indeed thought about what you’d have made of it as I watched it unfold… Thanks for the comment!
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