Random quotes from Elon from a sort of press conference today.
- doing a six-hour coast before final second-stage burn; going through Van Allen Belts. Also fuel could freeze or oxygen lost.
- Tesla will be placed into a heliocentric orbit and become a Earth-Mars cycler; only extremely tiny chance of hitting Mars in foreseeable future.
- one area of concern is relative interactions of the three booster cores; could be resonance or shockwave impingement. Once second stage separates, we’re in much more known territory other than long-duration coast.
- looks like development of BFR is moving quickly, and won’t be necessary to qualify Falcon Heavy for crewed spaceflight.
- if we’re successful, offer near super-heavy-lift for little more than Falcon 9. “Game over” for all other heavy-lift rockets.
- if successful with this test launch, we’ll be ready to put a satellite on the next Falcon Heavy launch.
- if successful should be able to d another FH in three to six months. Can produce them at a pretty rapid rate.
- if we wanted to, we could add to more side boosters, make it Falcon Super Heavy.
- If FH blows up the pad, it'll take at least 9 - 12 months to get the pad back in action. It won't affect production.
- However if it clears the pad and doesn't go well, can launch FH again in 3 to 4 months