FluentU

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch

Falcon Heavy is a partially reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured by SpaceX. It is derived from the Falcon 9 vehicle and consists of a strengthened Falcon 9 first stage as a central core with two additional first stages as strap-on boosters. This increases the low Earth orbit (LEO) maximum payload to 63,800 kilograms (140,700 lb), compared to 22,800 kg (50,300 lb) for a Falcon 9 Full Thrust, 28,790 kg (63,470 lb) for Delta IV Heavy, 27,500 kg (60,600 lb) for the Space Shuttle and 140,000 kg (310,000 lb) for Saturn V. Falcon Heavy is the world's fourth-highest capacity rocket ever built, after Saturn V, Energia and N1, and the most powerful rocket in operation as of 2018.

SpaceX conducted Falcon Heavy's maiden launch on February 6, 2018, at 3:45 p.m. EST (20:45 UTC). The rocket carried a Tesla Roadster belonging to SpaceX founder Elon Musk as a dummy payload.

Rick Steves

Skydio R1 Autonomous Drone

We go hands-on with the Skydio R1, a camera-equipped drone that not only flies autonomously, but can actually track you and avoid almost any obstacle in its flight path. And from our first test, it actually works--we couldn't get it to crash. Skydio CEO and co-founder Adam Bry walks us through the computer vision technology that makes the R1 work, and we share our impressions from the impressive test flight.

Shot by Gunther Kirsch and edited by Norman Chan

Three Days in Koh Chang เกาะช้าง