Elon Musk Show Off SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket Assembly
Elon Musk must have been proud of the current progress of the Falcon Heavy being assembled in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The SpaceX founder took to social media on Wednesday, Dec. 20, to give the public a peek into the current progress of the rocket, which now looks to be close to being ready.
The rocket is slated for launch sometime in January, and comparing the pictures Musk posted to the official Falcon Heavy site, it looks to be missing just the payload and nose cone at the tip, like The Verge points out.
As the overall shape of the Falcon Heavy shows, the rocket is three Falcon 9 cores put together to work at lifting payloads as heavy as 54 metric tons or more to orbit. The rocket is also designed to be reusable, with all three cores expected to be able to return to Earth in good shape, enough to be used again for a next mission.
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As the case with the Falcon Heavy shown in Musk's Twitter post on Wednesday, all three cores where Falcon 9 boosters that have already flown missions.
"Max thrust at lift-off is 5.1 million pounds or 2300 metric tons. First mission will run at 92%," the SpaceX CEO noted in his next message, adding in a next post how the launch pad the Falcon Heavy will be using in Cape Canaveral has historical significance.
"Falcon Heavy launching from same @NASA pad as the Saturn V Apollo 11 moon rocket. It was 50% higher thrust with five F-1 engines at 7.5M lb-F. I love that rocket so much," Musk added right after.
SpaceX claims that the Falcon Heavy is one of the most powerful rockets ever made, noting how it can lift more than twice the capacity of the next operational launcher, the Delta IV Heavy. As a reusable platform, the company also claims that the Falcon Heavy can run missions at one-third of the cost, as well.
