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Falcon Heavy arrives at pad for fit checks ahead of maiden launch...
What will soon become the world’s most powerful rocket made its inaugural public appearance yesterday, December 28, when SpaceX rolled their Falcon Heavy to LC-39A.
While the rocket’s inaugural flight is still scheduled for January, integration and for checks must be performed to verify that the new vehicle’s systems correctly interface with the facilities at the launch complex. SpaceX will still need to perform a static fire of the three core’s combined 27 Merlin 1D engines before the stack is green lighted for flight.
This will be the most powerful rocket to launch off the historic LC-39A since the Saturn V moon rocket and, at 5.1 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, the most powerful rocket in the world when it enters service. Currently, this distinction is held by ULA’s Delta IV Heavy, which, at 2.1 million pounds of liftoff thrust, can place just under half of the Heavy’s payload capacity into orbit.
Falcon Heavy’s demo mission will launch Elon Musk’s own Tesla Roadster into a solar orbit at roughly the distance to Mars. Since the vehicle is performing a test flight, no commercial or government payloads are able to be carried, leaving SpaceX free to choose their own ballast.
The photos show off the massive rocket in all its glory, still under construction ahead of its maiden voyage skyward. The vehicle, which will be the most powerful working rocket on the planet if all goes according to plan, is built on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket platform. Two Falcon 9 rockets serve as first-stage boosters, and the central unit is also built on the same nine-engine configuration. All 27 of those engines need to light up in harmony for the Falcon Heavy to succeed.
The Falcon Heavy’s first flight, which Musk himself claims will include one of his own personal Teslas as a mock payload, will really be an incredible test of SpaceX’s know-how. Musk has previously said that engineering the rocket was a massive challenge with many pitfalls and problems, and that the team didn’t really know what they were getting into when they began it.
Musk is, of course, hoping that the rockets light perfectly, sail skyward, and that the Falcon Heavy completes its ascent and descent without issue, but he’s also being as pragmatic as possible.
“There’s a lot of risk associated with the Falcon Heavy, a real good chance that vehicle does not make it to orbit,” Musk said earlier this year at the 2017 International Space Station Research and Development conference. “I hope it makes it far enough away from the pad that it doesn’t cause pad damage. I would consider even that a win, to be honest.”
That might sound a bit pessimistic, but SpaceX is no stranger to failure. The company has lost many, many of its vehicles in the past, and it’s clear that Musk is setting his own expectations accordingly.
What will soon become the world’s most powerful rocket made its inaugural public appearance yesterday, December 28, when SpaceX rolled their Falcon Heavy to LC-39A.
While the rocket’s inaugural flight is still scheduled for January, integration and for checks must be performed to verify that the new vehicle’s systems correctly interface with the facilities at the launch complex. SpaceX will still need to perform a static fire of the three core’s combined 27 Merlin 1D engines before the stack is green lighted for flight.
This will be the most powerful rocket to launch off the historic LC-39A since the Saturn V moon rocket and, at 5.1 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, the most powerful rocket in the world when it enters service. Currently, this distinction is held by ULA’s Delta IV Heavy, which, at 2.1 million pounds of liftoff thrust, can place just under half of the Heavy’s payload capacity into orbit.
Falcon Heavy’s demo mission will launch Elon Musk’s own Tesla Roadster into a solar orbit at roughly the distance to Mars. Since the vehicle is performing a test flight, no commercial or government payloads are able to be carried, leaving SpaceX free to choose their own ballast.
The photos show off the massive rocket in all its glory, still under construction ahead of its maiden voyage skyward. The vehicle, which will be the most powerful working rocket on the planet if all goes according to plan, is built on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket platform. Two Falcon 9 rockets serve as first-stage boosters, and the central unit is also built on the same nine-engine configuration. All 27 of those engines need to light up in harmony for the Falcon Heavy to succeed.
The Falcon Heavy’s first flight, which Musk himself claims will include one of his own personal Teslas as a mock payload, will really be an incredible test of SpaceX’s know-how. Musk has previously said that engineering the rocket was a massive challenge with many pitfalls and problems, and that the team didn’t really know what they were getting into when they began it.
Musk is, of course, hoping that the rockets light perfectly, sail skyward, and that the Falcon Heavy completes its ascent and descent without issue, but he’s also being as pragmatic as possible.
“There’s a lot of risk associated with the Falcon Heavy, a real good chance that vehicle does not make it to orbit,” Musk said earlier this year at the 2017 International Space Station Research and Development conference. “I hope it makes it far enough away from the pad that it doesn’t cause pad damage. I would consider even that a win, to be honest.”
That might sound a bit pessimistic, but SpaceX is no stranger to failure. The company has lost many, many of its vehicles in the past, and it’s clear that Musk is setting his own expectations accordingly.
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