SpaceX announced via Twitter that it has successfully completed ground testing of Falcon Heavy, its new heavy-lift rocket. The Falcon Heavy is all slated to launch this Fall and is a key component of CEO Elon Musk’s ambition to colonize Mars. The testing took place at SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas facility.
In the tweet, the company announced the three first stage cores have completed their testing. It also posted a video of the test of one such cores. The Falcon Heavy is larger than most rockets the company has launched so far. It comprises of three Falcon 9 rockets strapped together. It is estimated that the combined thrust will allow SpaceX to launch more than 140,000 pounds of cargo into orbit. SpaceX hopes to recover the three boosters by landing them on Earth.
Falcon Heavy’s 3 first stage cores have all completed testing at our rocket development facility in McGregor, TX → https://t.co/GJu23QdZRK pic.twitter.com/ivVXPhWu0u
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 2, 2017
The Falcon Heavy is said to become the most powerful rocket in use. It is considered a successor to NASA’s all mighty Saturn V heavy lift rocket. Recently, Musk announced that SpaceX will launch the rocket in November. There is a slight possibility that the launch may not go as expected. This is partly because the company can only prepare so much from tests like the one that happened on Friday.
Falcon Heavy and Dragon
(Image Credit: SpaceX)
So far, the first flight of the Falcon Heavy has been delayed several times. Back in 2011, Musk announced the rocket would first fly in 2013. Unfortunately, the plan didn’t pan out and got delayed back t0 2017.
The Falcon Heavy will haul 140,000 pounds of cargo on a one-way trip to low Earth orbit. It should be made powerful enough to go on expeditions to Moon and Mars. Elon Musk believes the sooner the Falcon Heavy gets into service, the sooner we should be able to take up challenging missions such as sending men to Mars.
Putting together SpaceX rocket landing blooper reel. We messed up a lot before it finally worked, but there's some epic explosion footage …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 31, 2017
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