What SpaceX Falcon Heavy just Did Totally Shocked NASA Scientists!

One of our most important launches ever. Super glad it went well. Elon Musk excitedly shares his thoughts after confirming the deployment of NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft. After experiencing a long and tough journey to get to the launch pad, NASA's highly anticipated Europa Clipper astrobiology mission is finally underway. This mission not only attracted attention because of one of the best bets for finding life beyond Earth, but also marked the spectacular comeback of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket. Find out everything in today's TechMap episode. At 12.06 p.m. EDT on October 14, NASA's Europa Clipper probe atop SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket liftoff from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, KSC, in Florida. The mission kicked off a highly anticipated astrobiology mission to the Jupiter Ocean moon Europa and also marks the 11th overall for the Falcon Heavy and its second interplanetary mission. It was also the first Falcon Heavy launch to require the full expenditure of the vehicle's three first-stage boosters. Normally, the first-stage boosters for SpaceX's Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9 rockets reserve enough fuel to perform landing burns for recovery and reuse on future launches. To make it possible, both the Europa Clipper probe and Falcon Heavy experienced a long and tough journey to get to the launch pad. The latest obstacle is Hurricane Milton, which forced the delay of the Europa Clipper mission on October 10. The previous obstacle regards Clipper's transistors, namely MOSFET's devices. They control the flow of electricity on the probe, which may not be as radiation-hardened as they were believed to be. To make matters worse, it all happened just a few months before the scheduled October release. The situation threatened the October launch date, but NASA cannot afford to delay the mission. If the delay happens, there are backup windows are available for the next two years, but this would also require additional gravitational assists, potentially causing further delays. The mission team then worked to determine how many transistors may be susceptible and how they will perform in flight. NASA evaluated options for maximizing the transistors' longevity in the Jupiter system. Fortunately, on August 28, the national agency announced that transistors would be able to support the baseline mission. Thus, the mission remains on track. The Europa Clipper mission is aimed at investigating Jupiter's icy moon Europa to determine if its subsurface environment could support life. Europa is believed to have a global ocean beneath its thick ice shell, and the mission will gather data on the moon's ice, ocean, and geology. These findings will help scientists better understand whether the conditions on Europa could make it a candidate for habitability. The spacecraft will now travel past Mars, using the planet's gravity to gain the velocity needed to reach Jupiter's moon Europa by 2030, SpaceX tweeted on X, and Elon Musk retweeted saying, Europa has the highest chance of life in our solar system because of the thick protective shell of ice that covers its ocean. If even simple bacterial life is discovered on Europa, this will be the most significant planetary mission ever. Godspeed Europa Clipper, he added. Lift off Europa Clipper. Today we embark on a new journey across the solar system in search of the ingredients for life within Jupiter's icy moon. Our next chapter in space exploration has begun. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is excited. This will be NASA's first use of the Falcon Heavy for a flagship planetary mission, thanks to its capability of carrying large payloads on deep space missions. Powered by nine Merlin 1D, generating more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, as much power as 18,747 aircraft, it is billed as the world's most powerful operational booster since NASA's Saturn V. It could carry 63.8 tons to low-Earth orbit and 26.7 tons to geosynchronous transfer orbit. Mentioning the payload capability to LEO, each SpaceX triple-core Falcon Heavy booster can launch twice as much cargo into orbit as ULA's Delta IV Heavy and its new Vulcan Centaur rocket. With 70 meters in height and 3.7 meters in diameter, it bypasses contemporary rockets such as Russia's Soyuz with just 45.6 meters in height and 10.3 meters in diameter. Two side boosters are designed to land back on the ground after launch and will be refurbished for reuse. This significantly reduces launch costs, as the rocket doesn't have to be discarded after a single use. Indeed, with a base launch cost of just $90 million, Falcon Heavy can launch that cargo for just a fraction of the price United Launch Alliance and NASA charge for the service. Atlas V starts at $109 million, whereas the company's other type of rocket, the Delta IV Heavy, costs upwards of $350 million a launch, limiting its use to government customers. Even ULA's low-cost Vulcan Centaur has a price tag of around $100 or $200 million. NASA's SLS is even much more expensive, up to $4.1 billion for each launch. It explains why NASA chose the Falcon Heavy instead of its rocket. NASA believes that a commercial launch like Falcon Heavy could save the agency over $1.5 billion compared to using a giant orange rocket. Furthermore, the design of the SpaceX rocket offers more benefits in terms of mission duration and orbital trajectory, improving mission efficiency and precision. In some cases, the two side boosters can flexibly be converted to expendable mode, meaning they will not return due to specific requirements from the customer. In addition, the masculine rocket stands out by its attraction. Even though during six years of operation, its number of launches so far is just counted on your fingers. The bottom line here is its high-quality customer network. The reliability of Falcon Heavy and its missions in the past helped SpaceX to retain rich customers, and this is a smart strategy. In business, you don't necessarily need to expand your customer circle as much as possible. Sometimes limiting your customer range to a small group and focusing on exploiting them is a smart strategy, and a small group of customers that Falcon Heavy focuses on is the national agencies who feel free to pay more for priority. You know, launch prices for NASA and military payloads run higher than SpaceX's base commercial price. Government satellites often require special handling, resulting in extra fees in some terms like engineering insight, unique cleanliness specifications, and in some cases schedule priority over other commercial missions. More importantly, NASA and the Space Force will buy more Falcon Heavy launches from SpaceX. In the eyes of the military and the U.S. government's spy satellite agency, the Falcon Heavy, alongside ULA's Vulcan, is a replacement for the retired Delta IV Heavy rocket, which has conducted top-secret surveillance missions into religious orbit for more than two decades. In contrast, NASA's SLS is unwillingly well-known for its scandals regarding delays and cost overruns. Most notable is the reports about SLS damming to Boeing, the prime contractor for the SLS's core and upper stages. According to the report of NASA's Office of Inspector General, OIG, Boeing was using underqualified workers to build SLS booster rockets for NASA's Artemis missions. The report, released by NASA's internal watchdog on August 8, focuses on the gigantic Space Launch System, SLS, Block 1B, and its exploration upper stage, EUS. Block 1B is designed to increase the amount of cargo SLS can carry to the Moon. The upgraded version is key to NASA's long-term lunar plan and will be used for Artemis IV. Currently scheduled to launch in 2028, Boeing was using underqualified workers to build SLS booster rockets for NASA's Artemis missions. This caused serious quality issues, including welding issues on a liquid oxygen tank section intended for the Artemis III mission, the first crewed Moon landing mission. In addition, it also contributes to the skyrocketing price of launch vehicles. OIG is concerned these factors could potentially impact the safety of the SLS and Orion spacecraft, including its crew and cargo. Boeing's scandal related to the SLS rocket is just one of many safety concerns on the company's products embracing the airplane and spacecraft. We have heard and obsessed about the MAX disasters involving Boeing's 737 family. We also prayed for Butch and Suni, two NASA astronauts stuck on the ISS due to Starliner's glitches under its first crew test flight. Of course, we shouldn't wait until the next Artemis missions experience mid-flight failures to fight for the lives of the ill-fated astronauts aboard. Artemis II, scheduled for September 2025, is the first crewed mission on NASA's path to establishing a long-term presence on the Moon for science and exploration through Artemis. The 10-day flight will test NASA's foundational human deep space exploration capabilities, the SLS rocket, Orion spacecraft, for the first time with astronauts. Artemis III, scheduled for September 2026, will build on the crewed Artemis II flight test. The first crewed Moon landing mission also operates with the support of an SLS rocket, following the Artemis III mission that will land the first people near the Moon's south pole. Astronauts on Artemis IV will live and work in humanity's first lunar space station, Gateway, which will enable new opportunities for science and preparation for human missions to Mars. The mission will bring together an intricate choreography of multiple launches and spacecraft dockings in lunar orbit, and will feature the debut of NASA's larger, more powerful version of its SLS rocket and new mobile launcher. Artemis missions are accelerating scientific research on the surface of the Moon and soon in lunar orbit aboard Gateway. Built with international and commercial partnerships, Gateway will include docking ports for a variety of visiting spacecraft, space for the crew to live, work, and prepare for lunar surface missions, and instruments for science investigations to study heliophysics, human health, and life sciences, among other areas. And that just about wraps it up for today's episode. Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you next time.