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Animation of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket blasting off from a refurbished space shuttle launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.:
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SpaceX on Tuesday released a new animated video clip of its Falcon Heavy rocket launching from Florida.
The booster, which is comprised of three Falcon 9 first-stage boosters, is shown blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, what will be SpaceX’s second Florida launch pad.
Currently, Falcon rockets fly from a leased launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, located just south of the NASA spaceport. SpaceX has a second lease with NASA for one of the space shuttle’s mothballed launch pads. The company plans its first flight from the historic Launch Pad 39A this year. The mission will be the first test flight of the heavy-lift Falcon rocket.
The video, posted on YouTube, shows all three of the rocket’s core boosters flying themselves back to landing pads in Florida. SpaceX is in the midst of negotiating for another launch complex at Cape Canaveral that it intends to use as a landing pad.
First though, SpaceX is experimenting with landing its first-stage boosters on a platform in the ocean. The next run is expected on Feb. 8, after a Falcon 9 rocket sends a space weather monitoring satellite into orbit for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.
Quelle: D-News
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