I always receive notifications from the News app on my phone, to be honest I rarely look at it before swiping across the screen to dismiss the notification.
Last Monday night, I saw a notification that I was about to swipe to get rid of forever. Fortunately, I stopped and actually took the time to read it. It said “Why this week’s big rocket launch many make history”. Upon scrolling down the article, I came across the second paragraph that said “if all goes well Tuesday afternoon, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket will soar into space…carrying a cherry red Tesla Roadster blaring David Bowie into a sun-centered orbit near mars (Michael Greshko, National Geographic)”.
Okay wait, hold the phone. Since when was there going to be a rocket launching off the tip of Florida and why didn’t I know about it if it may “make history”? It is launching a $101,500 Tesla car into space while playing David Bowie’s song Star Man (very fitting by the way to honor the late great shining star of a man).
The article goes on to say, that the rocket will be capable of launching upwards of 140,000 pounds of cargo into space (ding, ding, ding) passengers and belongings for inhabitance on a planet other than Earth.
John Logsdon, a space-policy expert at George Washington University, says that “it will be the most significant test flight since 1967, which was the first test of Saturn V”. There is more to come from SpaceX Designs in the near future, including launching astronauts on the Dragon space craft and preparing for tests of the Big Falcon Rocket scheduled for 2019.
Things are happening in the world around us every day that we aren’t aware of. Of course, it has always happened. I think that with more and more with social media, we are stuck in our own bubbles. The breaking “news” that dominated social media that week was that Kylie Jenner had her baby. There is a car being launched into orbit, while blasting David Bowie and people care more about the name of Kylie Jenner’s baby?
More now than ever, I think it is important that we branch out of our social media bubbles and check into a real news source every once in a while. You might just stumble across something pretty gravity defying.
The mission last Tuesday was a success. A mannequin astronaut is soaring into orbit around the solar system as you read this. He is sitting in a cherry red car as David Bowie blasts through the speakers and into a galaxy far, far away.
HCXO,
Elizabeth