SpaceX prepares monster rocket for 1st test launch
CAPE CANAVERAL. — SpaceX’s new monster rocket makes its launch debut this week, blasting off from the same pad that hoisted men to the moon a half century ago.
The Falcon Heavy won’t surpass NASA’s Saturn V moon rocket, still all-time king of the launch circuit. It won’t even approach the liftoff might of NASA’s space shuttles.
But when it departs on its first test flight — as early as Tuesday — the Heavy with its three boosters strapped side by side and 27 engines will be the most powerful working rocket out there today, by a factor of two.
The Heavy represents serious business for the private space company founded 16 years ago by Elon Musk. With more than 5 million pounds of liftoff thrust — equivalent to 18 747s jetliners — the Heavy will be capable of lifting supersize satellites into orbit and sending spacecraft to the moon, Mars and beyond.
Using another airplane analogy, SpaceX boasts a Heavy could lift a 737 into orbit, passengers, luggage and all.
The company already has some Heavy customers lined up, including the U.S. Air Force.
“I can’t wait to see it fly and to see it fly again and again,” said the Southwest Research Institute’s Alan Stern. He’s the lead scientist for NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. which made an unprecedented flyby of Pluto.
Cape Canaveral hasn’t seen this kind of rocket mania since the last space shuttle flight in 2011. Huge crowds are expected for the launch from Kennedy Space Center. Visitor center tickets for the best up-close viewing, called “Feel the Heat” and “Closest Package,” sold out quickly.
“When you’re talking about what would be the biggest and largest operational launch vehicle in the world, that adds another dimension of excitement,” said Phil Larson, an assistant dean at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who used to work for SpaceX and the Obama administration.
For the inaugural flight, the rocket will carry up Musk’s cherry-red Tesla Roadster. In addition to SpaceX, he runs the electric car maker.
“Red car for a red planet,” Musk tweeted in December, when announcing the surprise cargo.
At the heart of SpaceX’s cost savings is its rocket-recycling campaign. The company will attempt to recover all three boosters; two will aim for side-by-side vertical touchdowns at Cape Canaveral, while the center core will attempt to land on a floating ocean platform.