SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch - Tesla Secret Level Event

I was just in Florida for the SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch - Tesla Secret Level Event. It was a hurry up and wait experience with multiple delays to see the Falcon Heavy launch a 6,000-kg Lockheed Martin-built Arabsat 6A satellite into orbit. It’s only the Falcon Heavy's second flight and first commercial flight. But it’s an important milestone and one that got me thinking about why companies like Space X are critical for the future of space flight and exploration.

01:00 - Space flight history/evolution
04:19 - Why space flight and exploration is important
06:57 - Falcon Heavy launch

Everyday Astronaut - Falcon Heavy vs. the Space Shuttle

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[rrbcap]

Saw a space shuttle launch when I was an early teenager circa 1990’s right off the banana river. Was one of the coolest experiences in my life. I can relate with you on the sound! You see the shuttle take off and you hear nothing. All of a sudden you hear the sound approaching you, and then BAM it rocks your body. Such a cool experience and I’m envious you saw the Falcon Heavy take off and land. Cheers! 🍻

[skyhiker]

Watched it all from the beginning many times. It just never gets old!

[emilgadjanski]

Watching that rocket lift off gave me shivers and seeing the boosters land brought tears - these are technological wonders we should all be in awe off. Thanks for sharing your amazing experience.

[andyfeimsternfei]

I wish Tesla and SpaceX would embrace you and others like you as ambassadors for us fans/owners! They need better connections to its public.
I highly recommend Feel the Heat tickets for a Falcon Heavy launch. Also the Sands Space museum for booster landings. Both are spiritual experiences!
The volunteers at Sands (Lee in particular!) are real treasures, full of lifetimes of firsthand rocket launch stories!

[menock]

Watched it live with my son. He either wants to work for Spacex or NASA Langley Research here in Virginia when he gets older. What an awesome experience for you. Another great video.

[leoclarke]

Thanks Matt - really fascinating as ever

[joksinm]

Always enjoy your videos. I am one of those fellow nerds. Also I didnt have a problem with the quality of your video, saw it at 1080p

[jaymesdevine]

Gosh I must be old. I remember watching the Saturn V take off on TV.

[ronm]

Thank you. I missed the live launch. And like Jaymes Devine below, I also saw the Saturn V take off.

[marketmerchandise]

Matt...I am a space nerd. I love your videos alot! I think you will be great narrating the beginnings of spacex and the conflicts that they had with Old space (ULA) . Believe me, you can make soo much amazing content if you dare delve into it ! I have been following them since 2008. I can refer you to lots of articles or you can just research them. I think its a fascinating look into what make them who they are. I REALLY WISH YOU COULD DO THIS. It will be very rewarding, maybe make a series of its own. You will increase your viewership by lots.

[يلانستكشف]

I was 3 miles from the launch 🚀 pad. I uploaded a video for the launch on my channel. Came all the way from Saudi Arabia for this event.

[thejayzed]

Hey Matt, something went awry with your upload. Video seems to be limited to 140p max resolution?

[sunmeetsingh]

0:37 teslanomics in the back carrying his son.

[HangryDwarfPress]

I... have something in my eye. (Spoiler: it's a rocket!)

[brianfong]

8:46 That iPhone auto-focus, my god.
Use a real camera and go to manual and get a zoom lens.

[altruism]

you should have told that guy in front of you taking vertical vids he should not reproduce

[erikengheim]

Thanks for making the video, you are a good presenter, I hope you don't mind some criticism. What I don't like is that you present SpaceX as a continuation of natural progress. As if NASA did exactly what they had to do in the only possible way. And that SpaceX was just a natural progression from that. I think that goes against one of the key ideas Elon Musk has been pushing, which is that progress is not inevitable. As he has pointed out about Space: in many ways we have as a civilization regressed. We went to the moon many decades ago, but we lost that capability and have not regained it yet.

You cannot say that the Shuttle was expensive merely because it was older and Falcon Heavy is cheaper because it is newer. It does not work like that. The Space Shuttle was a massive failure. Despite all the advances in technology NASA had done since Apollo, the price pr Kg of payload launched with the Shuttle is HIGHER than the Saturn V. I repeat HIGHER than the old Saturn V. Do the math. Saturn V, cost $1.11 billion per launch, but put 140 tons into LEO. That is about $8000 per Kg.

You say it is all about being newer. Not true. The SLS is projected to cost $1.5-2 billion per launch. HIGHER than the Saturn V. Despite only pushing 95 tons into orbit. That is an even higher cost than the Shuttle. Around $20 000 pr Kg. Do you see the pattern here? NASA is not advancing. It is REGRESSING. Every new rocket is taking longer time to make. They spend more time making it, and the cost per Kg is INCREASING, not DECREASING!!!

People got to stop pretending NASA is doing a good job. NASA is failing as an organization. Personally I don't blame NASA, but the politicians. However one cannot hope to fix NASA if, people pretend everything is working.

The Falcon Heavy cost $500 million to develop. It puts 62 tons into orbit, compared to 95 tons for SLS, which does not exist yet. Just a SINGLE launch of SLS costs 3-5 times as much as developing the whole Falcon Heavy. Lets not get into the fact that the SLS has cost 15 billion thus far and is far behind schedule. For that cost they could have launched 100 Falcon heavy into orbit. One cannot paper over these problems, by just saying FH is cheaper because it is newer. SLS and Falcon Heavy started development about the same time in 2011.

And this is in no way limited to SpaceX vs NASA. The Russians, Chinese, Indians, Europeans all have made considerably cheaper rockets than NASA for many years. The Space Shuttle was not expensive because one did not know how to make cheaper rockets back then. It was expensive because it was a terrible concept. Significantly cheaper rockets ALREADY existed.

This is NOT about technology at all but about failure of management and organization. I feel like the child in the story about the emperors new clothes. Like a child, I don't know much about this. I am not a rocket scientist. Yet like the child, I can see what is blindingly obvious.

[alliejr]

I get your point and your arguments make some sense, but a bit unfair to compare (2:30) the cost of a _MANNED_ flight to an unmanned flight. The margin for safety on the manned flight is 10x? 100x? 1000x? that of the unmanned flight. So of course the unmanned flight is cheaper. It should be $300/kg, not $3000/kg. The "sunk cost" issue is _NOT_ the main reason why NASA is historically more expensive. Tesla has no economic interest in the science that NASA does (outside of the rocket science), so NASA has somehow had to manage being both the most economical way to launch into space _AND_ deliver on its science mandate at the same time. (...and so now we finally learn the benefit you received from that referral code you hawked for months and which you maddeningly never disclosed as you were hawking it).