Science In The News: Falcon Heavy’s Successful Flight

I am an avid fan of everything SpaceX is working on, so I was extremely excited when their Falcon Heavy rocket completed its first commercial flight and it was 100% successful with all 3 boosters recovered. This is a major step for American spaceflight and the cooperation between NASA and private launch companies. It is also a major achievement as the maiden flight of the Falcon Heavy in 2018 only two of the three boosters were recovered. The maiden flight was also a test launch whereas this was the first commercial flight, signaling that there are customers willing to pay for SpaceX’s heavy-lift rocket. A full article detailing this event by CNBC is available here.

CNBC did a good job with this article, it mainly stuck to the main talking points of the event. However, the article does not mention any of the other American space launch companies currently working on important rockets of their own, such as Blue Origin or RocketLab, this may lead people to believe that SpaceX alone is changing the market. However, SpaceX has been arguably the most successful of the companies with their development of technologies and making the biggest splash in the media. Their Falcon 9 booster, which is also the booster utilized in the Falcon Heavy has turned the space industry on its head in only a couple years. On April 8, 2016 a Falcon 9 booster landed successfully on a drone ship in the ocean. It was an amazing spectacle. Now, just three years later, it is big news when one of their boosters fails to land, rather than landing successfully. This speaks to the broader impact of SpaceX, they have completely changed how we think about space and rocketry. Now the thought is common: “Why waste the rocket? It’s expensive, let’s recover it and fly it again.” This monumental shift in thinking has changed rocketry forever. Multiple companies are now working to develop reusable rockets of their own. This will have major benefits for all of society, the more we can access space cheaply, the more research can be completed with other benefits as well. SpaceX plans to start a constellation of satellites termed Starlink, that will blanket the entire planet with high-speed internet access. Huge populations of people who never had internet access will soon be able to connect for a low cost. For example, the internet has major uses in third world countries for farming, weather data, planting calendars, the list goes on. This is just one of the benefits that this development is leading towards.

I think this is a major achievement that will lead to major developments in space technology and scientific research. The developments that come from space exploration benefit everyone on Earth, in ways people don’t often recognize. I’m glad that SpaceX and NASA are working together do drive costs down and open up space to everyone. As more people can affordably access space more lifesaving technology can be developed and deployed to improve the lives of everyone on Earth.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *