Here is the live video of the press conference from SpaceX and Elon Musk after the successful test launch of the Falcon Heavy.
Elon starts talking after 50 minutes.
Falcon Heavy has the same level of expendability as the Falcon 9. The only part that won’t be recoverable from the Falcon Heavy is the upper stage. They will start recovering all the other parts (fairing, nose cone) along with all of the first stages.
The Falcon Heavy success has given Elon a lot of confidence in making the BFR work.
Most of the SpaceX engineering resources will be devoted to BFR. Elon thinks this will make things go quite quickly.
Certain aspects of re-entry heating scale to the eighth power.
Elon Musk expects that in 3-4 years there will be a full up orbital BFR test flight. Orbit first and then the moon.
The Starman spacesuit is a full production and working spacesuit. It was a qualification article to fly it.
Recovering the fairing has turned out to be more difficult that they thought.
They will have a special recovery boat like a giant catchers mit and it should work for the Dragon as well.
They are working on a new fairing and expect to launch Fairing v2 and recover it in 6 months.
Top priority is now crewed Dragon capsule.
They tested out the new Titanium grid fins. They worked out great. The titanium grid fins are also the most expensive part of the FH.
SpaceX total investment in the Falcon Heavy was over $500 million.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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