Author Pam with Bill Nye “The Science Guy”
Apollo / Saturn V Center
Space Shuttle Runway
Commemorative Launch Brochure
3-2-1 Ignition Take-off
Falcon Heavy Launch into Space
Close-up of SpaceX Rocket
Twin Side Boosters Returning to Earth
SpaceX Tweeted Photo of Tesla Roadster in Space
On Tuesday I watched an epic SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was incredible! I had purchased the “Feel the Heat” package to view liftoff from the closest public viewpoint at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at KSC (only 3.9 miles from launch pad 39A across the Banana River). We could hear and feel the rumble of takeoff when the engines ignited and everyone wildly cheered!
While we waited in the viewing stands, we were entertained by Bill Nye “The Science Guy”. Earlier we got the chance to walk on the shuttle runway. The runway is so long (~3 miles) that you can’t see from one end to the other because of the curvature of the Earth. Locals call it a “gator tanning facility”, because alligators like to warm up in the sun on the concrete.
This launch was the historic demonstration flight of the world’s most powerful rocket. It launched from the same pad used by the Apollo moon missions. Nestled inside the rocket was Elon Musk’s personal red Tesla roadster, including a dummy driver named Starman in a SpaceX astronaut suit. Usually demonstration flights include demo payloads like a block of cement as weight, but Elon Musk wanted to make it more interesting. And he certainly did, based on camera images beamed from the roadster! My favorite one, which simply looks unreal, is a picture of the car after payload release showing Starman driving the bright red cherry roadster through space with Earth in the background. Until the batteries give out, the song “Space Oddity” by David Bowie will play on the car’s stereo. A display panel in the Tesla says “Don’t Panic” – a reference to the sci-fi classic book “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. Ultimately the Tesla roadster will endlessly loop around the sun for billions of years in an orbit past Mars and the Asteroid Belt.
As if all of that wasn’t enough, just as thrilling was to see the twin side boosters simultaneously descend to Earth and land on target at Cape Canaveral. Their speed was so great they generated double sonic booms. The third core stage was set to return to the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Atlantic Ocean offshore. Unfortunately the core crashed into the water near the platform. But that was a minor hiccup in an otherwise flawless and amazing spectacle. WOW!
The space center seems to be booming lately with private enterprise, and it is exciting to see new projects in the works. Hopefully these launches capture people’s imaginations about future possibilities! A great article about the launch is at: https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/07/spacex-debuts-worlds-most-powerful-rocket-sends-tesla-toward-the-asteroid-belt/
If you would like to visit Kennedy Space Center (highly recommended), learn more at: https://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/
Click on any of the pictures to enlarge for more detail.
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