Demo (Test Flight)

Crew

Starman

Status: Active
2/6/2018 -
Nationality: Earthling
Type: Non-Human
First Flight: 2/6/2018
Last Flight: 2/6/2018

"Starman" is a mannequin dressed in a spacesuit occupying the driver's seat of Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster, launched to an heliocentric orbit on Falcon Heavy's inaugural launch.

Rocket

Falcon Heavy – SpaceX

Family: Falcon
Length: 70 m
Diameter: 12.2 m
Launch Mass: 1400 T
Low Earth Orbit Capacity: 63800 kg

The Falcon Heavy was manufactured by SpaceX with the first launch on 2018-02-06. Falcon Heavy has 3 successful launches and 0 failed launches with a total of 3 launches. The Falcon Heavy is a variant of the Falcon 9 full thrust launch vehicle and consists of a standard Falcon 9 rocket core, with two additional boosters derived from the Falcon 9 first stage.

Landing

The first stage of the Falcon 9 failed to land on the ASDS, OCISLY, stationed of the east coast. According to CEO Elon Musk the center core did not have enough ignition fluid to restart the two outer engines during its final approach to the ship. As a result, the center core was destroyed when it impacted the water at over 480kmh merely 100 meters from the droneship.

Of Course I Still Love You – OCISLY

The second ASDS barge, Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) services launches in the Pacific Ocean and was the site of the first landing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage during CRS-8, the launch of a Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station.

Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship – ASDS

An autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) is an ocean-going vessel derived from a deck barge, outfitted with station-keeping engines and a large landing platform. Construction of such ships was commissioned by aerospace company SpaceX to allow for recovery of rocket first-stages at sea for high-velocity missions which do not carry enough fuel to return to the launch site after lofting spacecraft onto an orbital trajectory.

Agency

SpaceX

Type: Commercial
Abbreviation: SpX
Administration: CEO: Elon Musk
Founded: 2002
Launchers: Falcon
Spacecraft: Dragon
Country: USA

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.