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Very nice video above, by Tom Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut. He covered a lot of the rocket parts well. But as for why it took so long, he left out all of the ground support/construction/facilities aspects. Which would be sort of messy to explain in a video. Where SpaceX was claiming launch in 6 months and had not even gotten permits (sometimes not even applied for them) to build/modify anything, much less actually start working ("We'll launch Falcon Heavy in 6 months. Now let's file for a permit for building the HIF and have it all completed in 5.5 months". Uh, no). So the vast majority of those delays were not delays, internally they knew they were not going to have the launch (and landing) facilities ready for years, or the FH rocket even after changing from 1.0 to 1.2, but kept saying "6 months". I could understand deferring spending the $ to START on a lot of it. But again in deferring starting, then they were deferring when it could possibly be ready. Which again is fine, but they kept on blowing their credibility by claiming 6 months for years.
Anyway, at least it's weeks away, I expect it will have flown by 60 days from now. Presuming no big problems found. There will no doubt be some issues to crop up. Could be for mundane things like how things go when they do test tankings at the pad, doing quick loads of chilled RP-1 and LOX for all three boosters, in a short period of time. Or like how the vehicle/pad/TEL react during static firing.
Some things to catch up on:
https://www.space.com/39195-elon-musk-tesla-roadster-falcon-heaavy-photo.html
Ironically I think the leaked image looks better aesthetically because it's a pure side view and nose-up angle, and shows the mount assembly. I mean I've seen images of fairings before. Would probably feel different if there had indeed been a pure side view with the fairing.
Though I will say that in the above photo, when they try for a fairing recovery and only test with one fairing half (little point in doing both till they perfect it), seems like the one on the left will be the one. Those three tanks near the top. Probably Nitrogen tanks for the RCS (to orient the fairing the right way for the atmospheric re-entry and probably hold it steady enough).
Other news:
Scott Manley explains why the Iridium launch plume was so visible, plus some other news (FH Roadster, Mr Steven retrieval ship, etc)
[video=youtube;CJ6nn8fZOmc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ6nn8fZOmc[/video]
Anyway, at least it's weeks away, I expect it will have flown by 60 days from now. Presuming no big problems found. There will no doubt be some issues to crop up. Could be for mundane things like how things go when they do test tankings at the pad, doing quick loads of chilled RP-1 and LOX for all three boosters, in a short period of time. Or like how the vehicle/pad/TEL react during static firing.
Some things to catch up on:
https://www.space.com/39195-elon-musk-tesla-roadster-falcon-heaavy-photo.html
Ironically I think the leaked image looks better aesthetically because it's a pure side view and nose-up angle, and shows the mount assembly. I mean I've seen images of fairings before. Would probably feel different if there had indeed been a pure side view with the fairing.
Though I will say that in the above photo, when they try for a fairing recovery and only test with one fairing half (little point in doing both till they perfect it), seems like the one on the left will be the one. Those three tanks near the top. Probably Nitrogen tanks for the RCS (to orient the fairing the right way for the atmospheric re-entry and probably hold it steady enough).
Other news:
Scott Manley explains why the Iridium launch plume was so visible, plus some other news (FH Roadster, Mr Steven retrieval ship, etc)
[video=youtube;CJ6nn8fZOmc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ6nn8fZOmc[/video]
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