Elon Musk Says SpaceX Is 'Aiming for First Flight' of Falcon Heavy on Feb. 6

By Edward Leano, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, says that the Falcon Heavy is expected to be ready for its maiden launch on Feb. 6. The Falcon Heavy is touted as the most powerful rocket in the world today, and it could carry more than 54 metric tons of payload into orbit.

Musk took to social media on Sunday, Jan. 28 to announce the schedule.

"Aiming for first flight of Falcon Heavy on Feb 6 from Apollo launchpad 39A at Cape Kennedy. Easy viewing from the public causeway," Musk posted on Twitter just a bit over a week before the scheduled launch.

It would take a rocket like the Falcon Heavy to launch the first payload that Musk wants to put into an orbit around planet Mars — his own personal Tesla Roadster. With a lifting capacity the equivalent of a 737 jetliner, the Falcon Heavy is also expected to play heavily into Musk's ambitious plan for a habitable Mars city by 2022.

The Falcon Heavy's power only comes second to NASA's retired Saturn V rocket, which, before it was discontinued in the 1970's, was capable of lifting more than twice the payload mass as the SpaceX Falcon Heavy, according to Gizmodo.

The modern engineering feat that SpaceX was able to achieve with the Falcon Heavy that sets it apart from earlier rockets are the three reusable first-stage boosters, which will go a long way in making sustained flight missions more affordable.

While it's possible that the first launch will contain a dummy payload for testing, Elon Musk has already revealed photos of his Tesla Roadster being prepared for the Falcon Heavy. Still, the company is also exploring plans to run test flights using dummy weights.

"Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks. That seemed extremely boring," Musk posted on Instagram earlier in December last year.