Bad Astronomy

Space X conducts nine engine test

The private company Space X just passed a major milestone: a successful nine-engine firing of its Merlin engines. This cluster of engines will be what they use to launch the Falcon 9 rocket into orbit, so this test is a big deal. They fired the engines on July 30, and again on August 1.

The video is pretty frakkin’ awesome. Make sure your speakers are turned up.

This is great news; the Falcon 9 is a beefy rocket capable of lofting 11 tons to low-Earth orbit. A Falcon 1, a smaller but still capable rocket, is due to launch sometime soon, but I’m still not sure when. More on that when I find out.