Falcon Heavy is by far the powerful rocket to have been manufactured. Thanks to SpaceX, it will liftoff on Feb 6 2018 from the launch pad 39A, located at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral – the same one used by NASA’s Apollo moon missions making this one historical too. Although NASA is in-progress of building a much heavier rocket called SLS (Space Launch System) which is expected to be completed only by 2020, SpaceX’s FH will still stand out due to less cost and reusable capability.
What makes this so special?
- As already mentioned its of the powerful operational rocket to have ever built with less cost. It has the ability to lift into orbit over 54 metric tons (119,000 lb)–a mass equivalent to a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage AND fuel! Whoa that is powerful.
- Comparing to Falcon 9, this has 27 merlin engines which is equivalent to nine (merlin) Falcon 9 engines together that generates more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.
- It can bring 140,660 pounds to LEO (Low Earth Orbit) and 58,860 pounds to GTO (Geostationary Transfer Orbit)
- Falcon Heavy missions will deliver large payloads to orbit inside a composite fairing, but the rocket can also carry the Dragon spacecraft.
- Falcon Heavy not only will carry payloads, satellites but humans too. One day.
- Below is the comparison of other world’s heavy lift so far.
The Sci-Fi man, Elon Musk tweeted, “Aiming for first flight of Falcon Heavy on Feb. 6 from Apollo launch pad 39A at Cape Kennedy. “Easy viewing from the public causeway.“
Here is the flight animation of the Falcon Heavy. It’s a sight for the eyes.
On an ending note, this isn’t the first heavy lift rocket first built. There was Saturn V, which took humans to the moon for the first time. It had the ability to launch about 308, 000 pounds to the LEO. However, Falcon Heavy is expected to do more than that. It is designed or hoped to carry payloads to above the moon and beyond; like Mars.
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