SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Delayed By Atmospheric Wind

Elon Musk has been forced to delay the launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket due to excessive wind speeds in the upper atmosphere

Matt Kimberley

06 Feb 2018

You know when it’s just too windy to bother stepping outside? The incredible SpaceX Falcon Heavy project has been delayed by two hours – because of atmospheric gales.

It’s a bit gusty in the upper atmosphere, according to a Tweet from Elon Musk. The winds at high altitude are about 20 per cent stronger than the Falcon Heavy’s upper limits of capability, meaning that if it was launched anyway, it would probably be torn apart or tossed back to Earth like the swiftly-binned lid from a can of baked beans.

The flight was due to begin at 6.30pm UK time (1.30pm US EST), with a webcast starting 40 minutes before, but that has been put back to 8.45pm and the webcast, which you can watch via the video above, should now kick off soon.

EDIT: The launch has been given the green light for 8.45pm, or 3.45pm CET.

Launch auto-sequence initiated (aka the holy mouse-click) for 3:45 liftoff #FalconHeavy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2018

Falcon Heavy is twice as powerful as the next-most powerful rocket in the world today. It’s claimed to be able to lift 63.8 tonnes of payload into low Earth orbit; about the same as five New Routemaster London buses. If you want to launch a bus or five into space yourself, via Falcon Heavy, the price is a mere $90 million, although the maximum payload for a Mars mission is only 16.8 tonnes.

Elon Musk isn’t sending any buses. Nor is he sending ordinary test ballast, like concrete. He’s sending his own old Tesla Roadster. He was quoted widely as saying that using concrete or steel blocks “seemed extremely boring.”

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Delayed By Atmospheric Wind

The Roadster’s stereo will be playing David Bowie’s Space Oddity on repeat, for a journey that plans to take it to an elliptical Mars orbit for what Musk hopes will be something like a billion years. We love the track, but if it was us we might want to take a fully-stocked MP3 player too…

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Comments

It’s a question of points of view my friend ;) yeah you can have the most powerful rockets in the world, you can create paypal hyperloop … Just everything you want.But… If people are going to wait months and months for a car that they have paid in part for … It’s clear that something is out of control … And a article that appeared today on ct says that the cars of the little and insufficient production of model 3 are built with the quality of the 90’s Kia … Something looks wrong … Looks like Tucker… But anyway i respect your thing bro, it’s an my personal idea about musk and i like you profile image i love gorillaz ^^

So if you somehow got the roadster to the surface of Mars, could you drive it? No ICE means no need for oxygen, so theoretically it should be able to function

It’s evident that you can’t talk in democracy , and also you’re offensive… So ok … I don’t know who you are and even why i’m still talking with you … I’ve got my ideas and you have yours … And i don’t give a f*ck you fail to take me seriously … And like we say in my country famm nu bucchin !