SpaceX Falcon Heavy animation from SpaceX
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launch today is a historic moment not just for the United States, but for space travel enthusiasts all around the world. If all goes well, today’s launch will carry Elon Musk’s red Tesla Roadster into a heliocentric orbit near Mars and beyond. A successful Falcon Heavy launch means that we can finally focus again on sending humans beyond the International Space Station, back to the Moon or even all the way to Mars. As SpaceX explains: “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.” Musk has said that the Falcon Heavy has a 50-50 chance of success today, which means that you definitely won’t want to miss watching the launch window live.
The Falcon Heavy launch window begins at 1:30 p.m. Eastern today, February 6, and lasts until 4 p.m. Eastern. The launch was supposed to happen at 1:30 but due to wind shear, it was delayed until 3:10 p.m. Eastern. The countdown has now been put on holding awaiting a new target time. If for any reason the launch doesn’t happen, they can try again tomorrow (Wednesday, February 7.) If you want a countdown to the launch, visit Heavy’s story here. Here are the launch times in different time zones:
- 3:10 p.m Eastern (to 4 p.m. Eastern)
- 2:10 p.m. Central
- 1:10 p.m. Mountain
- 12:10 p.m. Pacific
- 10:10 a.m. Honolulu, Hawaii
- 11:10 a.m. Anchorage, Alaska
And in other parts of the world, here are some samples of time zones. You can see a full list and enter your city’s name to get the exact time in the time zone conversion here. All times listed below are on Tuesday unless Wednesday is noted.
- 20:10 UTC
- Athens: 10:10 p.m.
- Baghdad: 11:10 p.m.
- Beijing: 4:10 a.m. Wednesday
- Brussels: 9:10 p.m.
- Calgary: 1:10 p.m.
- Dubai: 12:10 a.m. Wednesday
- Frankfurt: 9:10 p.m.
- Hanoi: 3:10 a.m. Wednesday
- Hong Kong: 4:10 a.m. Wednesday
- Jerusalem: 10:10 p.m.
- London: 8:10 p.m.
- Melbourne: 7:10 a.m. Wednesday
- Mexico City: 2:10 p.m.
- Montreal: 3:10 p.m.
- Oslo: 9:10 p.m.
- Rio de Janeiro: 6:10 p.m.
- Singapore: 4:10 a.m. Wednesday
- Sydney: 7:10 a.m. Wednesday
- Tokyo: 5:10 a.m. Wednesday
- Toronto: 3:10 p.m.
- Vancouver: 12:10 p.m.
- Warsaw: 9:10 p.m.
- Winnipeg: 2:40 a.m.
The Falcon Heavy consists of a strengthened Falcon 9 rocket core with two Falcon 9 first stages added as strap-on boosters. This increases its maximum low Earth orbit payload, giving it more lift capability than any operational rocket. This includes a payload of 37,000 pounds (16,800 kilograms) to a trans-Mars injection. In other words, that’s twice the lift capacity of the Delta 4 Heavy of United Launch Alliance, the biggest existing American rocket. Musk wrote that if today’s launch works, “the Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful rocket in the world by a factor of two and the highest payload launch vehicle to reach orbit after the Saturn V moon rocket. Could do crewed missions to the moon and Mars with orbital refilling, but better to leave that to the BFR program.”
By the way: there will be three landings today as part of the launch. The two side boosters will land at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and the center core will land on an autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) in the Atlantic Ocean. This ship is called “Of Course I Still Love You.” This is the first launch of the Falcon Heavy, the third launch of 2018, and the 13th launch out of the KSC LC-39A. This is also the seventh and eighth rocket reuse for SpaceX and the first time a Tesla has been launched into space.
