Andrew Dafnis
3/5/18 Period 3 The New York Times Feb. 6, 2018 “Falcon Heavy, in a Roar of Thunder, Carries SpaceX’s Ambition Into Orbit” Kenneth Chang Link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/science/falcon-heavy-spacex-launch.html The article is about Elon Musk and his space exploration company SpaceX. The launch that this article was about is the Falcon Heavy rocket, capable of launching over 150,000 pounds of payload into low earth orbit. This was the test flight for this complex rocket, and was not expected to do all that well. The initial announcement of the Falcon Heavy back in 2011 urged excitement in a new “Space Race” But this time with private companies and government run companies. At the time the Falcon 9 rocket that they were using had limited capabilities and had a low carry weight for the payload. Since then the rocket has been improved upon and has solved some of the problems the Falcon Heavy was going to solve. That doesn’t mean the Falcon Heavy is useless by any means, the launch early this February proved successful when it carried it’s payload of one Tesla Roadster into space and eventually orbit around the sun and mars. The next plans are to launch two passengers in Falcon Heavy around the moon and back. This has been delayed and SpaceX has said they’re putting more of their effort into the B.F.R.. This rocket would replace both the current vehicles, and is planned to be for interplanetary use. The payload of this rocket would be more than double any of the single rockes currently on the market. This is going to be SpaceX’s focus for the next decade or so, it is planned to be ready during the mid to late 2020’s. The Falcon Heavy launched off of the same launch pad in Cape Canaveral Florida as the Saturn V Rocket, the Saturn V was used throughout the 70s and was the rocket that brought us to the moon. The Falcon Heavy test flight happened on February 5th 2018, it was SpaceX’s first launch of the year. SpaceX’s belief is that we should be a multi planet-species. This idea has sparked the building of their rockets, and overall quickness of the situation. SpaceX is special now because of this new “Space Race” more private companies are getting involved, like Amazon’s owner and new owner of Blue Origin, another private rocket company. Space doesn’t only launch rockets for their amusement, they’re now launching payloads for government organizations, like Nasa. Just last month, Boeing needed to launch top secret satellites into earth’s orbit and used the falcon 9 rocket to get them there. I’m personally really excited because space travel hasn’t advanced in decades, it gets me evidently more excited because their all private companies who have very little restrictions. Government companies get stopped and stalled a lot of the time, but with a billion entrepreneurs backing these countries not much can stop them. The speed at which they are advancing is the best part to me, and we’re able to see this progression because of ways to watch launches, i.e. live streams. You must include the link to your current event. If you do not have the article you will only receive half credit. I will comment on Nia and Chloe's blog posts.
7 Comments
Cole Lampro
3/7/2018 12:53:53 pm
I think it's crazy how it can launch over 150,000 pounds. That's really cool.
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Simon Howard
3/7/2018 12:59:30 pm
It is exiting to see how space travel is starting to advance again and I wonder how it will advance in the future.
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Mariela A.
3/7/2018 01:11:38 pm
I haven't been really interested in this types of things but since reading about this i'm quit interested on how this is going to happened because since you mentioned that space travels haven't advanced in decades.
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Matthew Arucan
3/7/2018 07:18:48 pm
The SpaceX's launch got me really interested and I agree with your opinion on the SpaceX launch.
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Sophia Morrison
3/8/2018 05:25:00 pm
Really interesting! I like that you brought up the point on how space travel has changed drastically over time, it will be interesting to see how the influence of many independent organizations will change how we currently view space travel. It is crazy to think that in the future living as a multi planet species may be a reality!
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Anil Kraft
3/8/2018 08:46:00 pm
Fascinating, why do you think that space travel hasn't advanced the way it has these past decades? Also do you think that we will become multi planetary in our lifetimes? At this rate it seems possible to me.
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Joseph Guyse
3/8/2018 09:31:43 pm
This has really caught my attention! Space X only continues to leap towards the future!
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