{"id":75881,"date":"2018-02-11T10:02:32","date_gmt":"2018-02-11T18:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/spacexs-falcon-heavy-launch-was-a-smashing-success-whats-next-for-space-travel"},"modified":"2018-02-11T10:02:32","modified_gmt":"2018-02-11T18:02:32","slug":"spacexs-falcon-heavy-launch-was-a-smashing-success-whats-next-for-space-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/spacexs-falcon-heavy-launch-was-a-smashing-success-whats-next-for-space-travel","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy Launch Was a Smashing Success\u2014What\u2019s Next for Space Travel?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sB_nEtZxPog?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Moreover, the launch accomplished SpaceX\u2019s overarching goal of making access to space travel affordable, with a price tag of $90 million per launch, compared to roughly $500 million for the second most powerful rocket, the United Launch Alliance\u2019s Delta IV Heavy. Now that the Falcon Heavy \u2019 s abilities have been demonstrated, it can be used to send satellites, payloads, and potentially tourists into space.<\/p>\n<p>Days since the historic launch, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/39633-spacex-tesla-roadster-starman-final-photo.html\"> this surreal image<\/a> of a Tesla Roadster and Starman cruising away from Earth has become a symbol and foreshadowing of humanity\u2019s exciting future as a space-faring species. After all, SpaceX\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/singularityhub.com\/2016\/11\/08\/the-motivating-power-of-a-massive-transformative-purpose\/\">massive<\/a> transformative purpose is not simply to make space travel affordable, but rather to allows humans to become a multi-planetary species. Ultimately, Tuesday\u2019s launch left many speechless because it brought us closer to accomplishing this aspirational goal.<\/p>\n<p>Given the hefty cost of space exploration, it\u2019s natural to wonder why we should explore space. Sure, space exploration and travel can also expand our technological abilities as a nation or even as a species. There have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpl.nasa.gov\/infographics\/infographic.view.php?id=11358\"> many inventions<\/a> that would not have occurred without space travel. But that\u2019s not the real reason we explore space.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"https:\/\/singularityhub.com\/2018\/02\/11\/spacexs-falcon-heavy-launch-was-a-smashing-success-whats-next-for-space-travel\/amp\/?__twitter_impression=true\">https:\/\/singularityhub.com\/2018\/02\/11\/spacexs-falcon-heavy-l...ssion=true<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Moreover, the launch accomplished SpaceX\u2019s overarching goal of making access to space travel affordable, with a price tag of $90 million per launch, compared to roughly $500 million for the second most powerful rocket, the United Launch Alliance\u2019s Delta IV Heavy. Now that the Falcon Heavy \u2019 s abilities have been demonstrated, it can be [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1522,2028],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-innovation","category-satellites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}