Thursday, March 21, 2019

Falcon Heavy

We just learned about the Falcon rocket.

Another SpaceX rocket is the Falcon Heavy.

This rocket is a lot more powerful than just one Falcon rocket, and it is being made to hopefully some day take people into outer space, to the Moon or even to Mars!

It is made from three "Falcon 9" rockets strapped together.
The one in the middle is the core main rocket, and the two on the outside are booster rockets.

This rocket can carry a lot of weight, about 141,000 pounds into outer space!
On the first of the Falcon Heavy rocket launch, the owner Elon Musk sent his car into space, a shiny red Tesla Roadster, and they also put a fake person inside in a space suit, and nicknamed him "Starman".

When the space craft makes it up into space, the Falcon 9 rockets actually fall off the main spacecraft and fall back to earth.
They don't crash into the ocean though, they actually use guidance systems to come back down to the ground and land safely on a launch pad so they can be used again!

(from: wikipedia - falcon heavy)

Falcon Heavy boosters landing - SciNews

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Rockets