SpaceX just notched a big milestone in the development of the company’s powerful new Falcon Heavy rocket, which is scheduled to fly for the first time a few months from now.
„First static-fire test of a Falcon Heavy center core completed at our McGregor, TX rocket-development facility last week,“ SpaceX representatives wrote on Twitter today (May 9), as an accompaniment to an 18-second video of the rocket test.
When ready to go, the two-stage, 230-foot-tall (70 meters) Falcon Heavy will be able to launch 60 tons (54 metric tons) to low-Earth orbit and 24 tons (22 metric tons) to geostationary transfer orbit. It will therefore be the most powerful booster since NASA’s Saturn V moon rocket, SpaceX representatives have said. [SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Rocket in Images]
The Falcon Heavy is based on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which has been launching payloads to space since 2010. The heavy lifter’s first stage consists of two Falcon 9 first stages strapped to a center core, which itself is a modified Falcon 9 first stage.
Falcon 9 first stages are powered by nine Merlin engines, so 27 Merlins will get the Falcon Heavy off the ground. The heavy lifter’s second stage harbors a single Merlin, just like a Falcon 9 second stage.
Integrating these parts into a single rocket sounds simple, but it turned out to be „shockingly difficult,“ SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk told reporters on March 30. He was speaking during a teleconference after the company’s successful launch of the SES-10 communications satellite.