SpaceX offers Rocket Man, U.S.A. -style.
First the moon, then on to Mars
ANEW chapter in man’s space odyssey opened with a mighty roar this past week when the Falcon Heavy rocket blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The dramatic sight and echoing reverberation came after years of delays and many a design challenge, not to mention a billion dollars’ worth of investment by private capital. That’s right,
Dear Reader and Taxpayer:
Your hard-earned money wasn’t needed to achieve this historic liftoff.
Art once imitated nature; now science and engineering follow in the gigantic steps seen in the art of film, specifically 2001: A Space Odyssey. Make no little plans, a visionary American architect and urban designer once advised, and there’s certainly nothing small about this rocket. It stands 230 feet high with its 27—count ‘em, 27—engines that altogether muster the thrust of about 18 Boeing 747 jumbo jets. It carried aloft a Tesla roadster as an accessory and, as the cereal boxes used to say, an extra added bonus. Other things may have changed, but it still pays to advertise.
Something tells us Falcon Heavy is only the first of its magnificent kind to ascend into the dark of space, illuminating it with shining American-made light along with hope. Competition remains the lifeblood of business, and SpaceX’s beautiful breakthrough is sure to inspire competitors, God bless each and every one of them.
For there’s still more than enough money and history to be made for all to share. The voice-over on SpaceX’s video of the happy occasion put it succinctly: “Everything you could want in a test flight.” Any glitches were scarcely noticeable as Falcon Heavy went up, up and away. Less than a few minutes into the flight, the rocket’s side boosters shut off, then separated. And the cover that protected the payload peeled off right on schedule. It was a balletic performance high above the Earth’s atmosphere.
Among the questions facing the rocket’s designers was whether it could withstand the stress of so many engines operating at supersonic speed at the same time. It did. The best laid plans of mice and mechanical engineers may still not come off perfectly, for the central section of the SpaceX rocket crashed instead of landing upright as planned. But that was just a minor detail in a grand scheme that went off with scarcely any other glitch.
And the control room burst into applause and cheers. Give us a happy ending every time, and may there be many more of them as Falcon Heavy sets new records for others to see and raise.
Bill Nelson, the Democratic senator from Florida and longtime fan of space ventures whether public or private, joined the cheering squad by noting that the successful launch was “a spectacular demonstration of the comeback of Florida’s Space Coast and of the U.S. commercial launch sector.” If the rocket’s boosters were impressive, so was the senator’s boosterish pride in his home state. (Who can blame him?) He called the launch good news for both the military and civilian space programs and “great news for jobs and the economy in Florida.” As it indeed was. Many happy returns to all concerned—a category that should include all Americans.
What we have here is not only an historic innovation in space travel but in financing it. SpaceX integrated its business operations by cutting prices and re-using the massive engines of its Falcon 9 fleet of spacecraft. It turns out to have been a triumph not only for its engineers but its accountants. Who knew that space travel could also be as down to Earth as a profit-and-loss statement?
So call it a success all around, not just for the visionaries behind it but the moneymen and women who have to account for every penny. That little kaching you hear beside the immense roar of rocketry is that of a cash register ringing up another sale.