“When Falcon Heavy lifts off, it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)—a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel–Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9.
Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars.”
“When Falcon Heavy lifts off, it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)—a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel–Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost.
Falcon Heavy’s first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft.
Following liftoff, the two side boosters separate from the center core and return to landing sites for future reuse. The center core, traveling further and faster than the side boosters, also returns for reuse, but lands on a drone ship located in the Atlantic Ocean.
At max velocity the Roadster will travel 11 km/s (7mi/s) and travel 400 million km (250 million mi) from Earth.”
Virgil “Gus” Grissom – Commander, Edward White – Command Pilot, Roger Chaffee – Pilot
STS-51 L (January 28, 1986)
Francis R. Scobee – Commander, Michael J. Smith – Pilot, Judith A. Resnik – Mission Specialist 1, Ellison Onizuka – Mission Specialist 2, Ronald E. McNair – Mission Specialist 3, Gregory B. Jarvis – Payload Specialist 1, Sharon Christa McAuliffe – Payload Specialist 2
STS-107 (February 1, 2003)
Rick D. Husband – Commander, William C. McCool – Pilot, Michael P. Anderson – Payload Commander, David M. Brown – Mission Specialist 1, Kalpana Chawla – Mission Specialist 2, Laurel Clark – Mission Specialist 3, Ilan Ramon – Payload Specialist 1
“Communicating from Earth to any spacecraft is a complex challenge, largely due to the extreme distances involved. When data are transmitted and received across thousands and even millions of miles, the delay and potential for disruption or data loss is significant. Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) is NASA’s solution to reliable internetworking for space missions.
The moon is about 250 thousand miles away and Mars is 140 million miles away on average. To communicate across these vast distances, NASA manages three communication networks consisting of distributed ground stations and space relay satellites for data transmission and reception that support both NASA and non-NASA missions. These are the Deep Space Network (DSN), the Near Earth Network (NEN), and the Space Network (SN).
For previous missions from low-Earth orbit to deep space, NASA has used point-to-point (direct) or single relay links to communicate with spacecraft; this operates much like the phone system by directly connecting two communication nodes. While this approach has been successful for previous missions, future exploration concepts will introduce much more complex communication needs, with data transfer between many nodes. These transmissions will need to operate like the Internet here on Earth – involving multiple hops via relay spacecraft and other intermediate nodes, creating the foundation for a Solar System Internet (SSI).
Like the terrestrial Internet, the SSI will offer users a well-defined, standardized platform upon which to build a wide variety of applications by accessing end-to-end network services. The SSI will utilize the Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocol suite, which can be used in any scenario, including those with longer light times or frequent link disruptions, where conventional Internet Protocols (IP) fail.”
Music provided by Killer Tracks: “Strange Reality”
Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Clare Skelly
“Behind every weather forecast—from your local, five-day prediction to a late-breaking hurricane track update—are the satellites that make them possible. Government agencies depend on observations from weather satellites to inform forecast models that help us prepare for approaching storms and identify areas that need evacuating or emergency first responders.”
Elizabeth Willaman (Willaman Creative): Lead Producer
“The more we see other planets, the more the question comes into focus: Maybe we’re the weird one? Decades of observing Earth from space has informed our search for signs of habitability and life on exoplanets and even planets in our own solar system. We’re taking a closer look at what we’ve learned about Earth – our only example of a planet with life – to our search for life the universe.”
Music credit: Curious Events by Independent Film Score – Andrew Skeet; Teapot Waltz by Benjamin James Parsons; Patisserie Pressure by Benjamin James Parsons
Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/LK Ward
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