Showing posts with label Space news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Space news. Show all posts

Sunday, January 28, 2018

SpaceX schedules early February launch of Falcon Heavy rocket

The Falcon Heavy, a reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle, is seen as the world's most powerful rocket since NASA's Saturn V moon rocket in the 1960s.

Now, the California-based space company has scheduled the first flight of the three-core heavy-lift rocket for early February.
"Aiming for the first flight of Falcon Heavy on February 6 from Apollo launchpad 39A at Cape Kennedy," SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted. "Easy viewing from the public causeway."
Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds (2.3 million kg) of thrust at liftoff, equal to about eighteen 747 aircraft.
Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit.
Falcon Heavy was designed to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with a crew to the Moon or Mars, according to SpaceX.