Elon Musk open space fan an early Christmas gift yesterday , when he squeeze some images of SpaceX ’s Falcon Heavy rocket ahead of its planned launch inJanuary 2018 .
It was a brief but no less exciting tweet , taken at Cape Canaveral in Florida . Here , Falcon Heavy will take flight next month , from the historical launching pad of paper that once took Apollo spaceman to the Moon on the Saturn V rocket .
Falcon Heavy will be the most powerful rocket currently in functioning , almost twice its near competitor – the Delta IV Heavy . The Saturn V will remain the top detent , however , with twice the thrust of the Falcon Heavy .
But the launching next month is garner all sort of hullabaloo , not least because on this inaugural flight , the cargo will be Musk ’s ownTesla two-seater railroad car . This will be air to the orbit of Mars , leave to drift through the Solar System for eternity .
That ’s if the launching is successful , as Musk has repeatedly said this first launch has a skilful prospect of failure – hence why there ’s a “ gag ” payload on board . If it does go smoothly , SpaceX will then assay to shoot down all of the boosters of the arugula , two on land at Cape Canaveral and one on a dawdler ship .
Falcon Heavy is fundamentally three Falcon 9 core boosters strap together . Its significantly increased thrust means it could be used to launch bass space missions and much heavier planet into celestial orbit . Musk has also allow using Falcon Heavy to launch two space touristsaround the Moon .
This caps a passably exciting 2017 for SpaceX. The company has launched double as many rockets as it has done in one year before , and it ’s performed numerous landings too . Just the other day it set in motion its 13th payload mission to the ISS for NASA .
But it ’s the Falcon Heavy launching that infinite enthusiast have wait geezerhood for , with legion delays so far . As always with these sorts of thing , there ’s a decent hazard it ’ll be delay again next calendar month ( there are signs the launching appointment hasalready slipped ) .
When it does eventually take escape , though , it ’ll be a sight to lay eyes on . If you ’re anywhere near Florida in January 2018 , you might want to determine a spare day or two to seek and catch story being made .
