3 ms·
There's only one thing I don't like about this, and that's the name. Falcon Heavy? Doesn't sound cool. SpaceX has done an excellent job of coming up with cool-
by hugh3 16y ago
There's only one thing I don't like about this, and that's the name. Falcon Heavy? Doesn't sound cool.
SpaceX has done an excellent job of coming up with cool-sounding names for everything they do, second only to US muscle car manufacturers of the 1960s. Falcon! Merlin! Draco! They even skipped straight from Falcon 1 to Falcon 9 because the numbers in between just don't sound nearly as cool.
But "heavy"? Sure, it's descriptive, but it's boring. Falcon X would be much better. Or Super-Falcon. Or ThunderCougarFalconBird...
- sbierwagen 16y ago"Rocket name"-heavy is standard aerospace nomenclature for uprated rockets, derived from such launch systems being described as "heavy lift" rockets. Since there is no such thing as a casual buyer of a 80 million dollar rocket, how cool the name is doesn't matter at all. It also puzzles me why they're "announcing" this, since a heavy lift version of the Falcon 9 has been planned since day one.
- hugh3 16y agoSince there is no such thing as a casual buyer of a 80 million dollar rocket, how cool the name is doesn't matter at all. You'd think so, and yet SpaceX has always done such a good job of making things sound cool. As Doc Brown says, if you're going to build a time machine out of a car you might as well give it some style. And if you're going to build a huge fricking rocket that goes to space you might as well give it a cool name.
- kragen 16y agoAfter OS X, the Xbox, ActiveX, DirectX, X Windows, the owl on Mr. Rogers, Ecstasy, Xanax, and now SpaceX, aren't you getting a little tired of X yet?
- JshWright 16y agoSkipped the boring numbers? Count the number of engines on first stage of the Falcon 1... now count the number of engines on the first stage of the Falcon 9...