06/02/2018

On February 6th of 2018 an historical event happened: the Falcon Heavy rocket of SpaceX completed successfully its first flight and landing (mainly). And is that important? Somebody could say that it's just a millionaire launching his red car into space... (Well, if somebody says so, it will be better for him if I don't hear it) But that's totally wrong, there are a lot of thing going on here. 

First of all Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket that's been launched since the famous Saturn V that took us to the moon, so it's the most powerful rocker that's been launched this century. And there's another important thing here: SpaceX rockets are reusable. That reduces the cost per launch a lot; just imagine paying a hole airplane every flight, it would be too expensive for anyone to fly in a plane, it's the reusability what makes it possible to use airplanes. 

What SpaceX is doing is changing the rules of the rocket market, and doing so they're changing the possibilities of space exploration, and the successful launch of falcon heavy is a step towards Elon Musk's plan of going to Mars. 

I have to say that for me it was so emotive, I've been waiting for this launch for years, and I didn't expect a successful launch, I thought that something was going to fail... But it didn't, and it all went perfectly: the startup, the lift off, the max-Q, the booster separation, the landing of the side boosters... 

And then, the music. While all those things were going on, 'Life on Mars', a song by David Bowie, was being played, and the Starman was driving a red car to Mars' orbit, with a sign that said Don't panic... I didn't know whether if i had to laugh or if I was supposed to cry. Shame that the central core didn't land as expected. Anyway, the launch gave the world incredible images, and it's an example of progress, the result of a lot of effort by the SpaceX team, because some years ago what Falcon Heavy has done looked like science fiction. And I'm happy for Elon because SpaceX has been criticized by a lot of people, and one more time SpaceX has shown that they deserve respect. SpaceX is creating a new space race that hopefully will lead us to new discoveries and to a new period of exploration beyond the Earth. Ok, all of this is good stuff, but furthermore what SpaceX is doing is motivating people, for example myself and my generation, to look for a better world and not to accept it for what it is nowadays.