After years of engineering and constructing one of the most anticipated rockets, SpaceX poises Falcon Heavy for launch on February 6.
The gigantic space vehicle is the most powerful, operational rocket--even more than NASA’s long-reigning Saturn V, which last took flight in 1973. The Falcon’s massive size, housing 27 engines, will carry huge cargo loads and could host an opportunity for human missions to the moon and Mars.
As you watch the launch, here’s what you should know about this history-making spacecraft.
What to expect from the launch? Falcon Heavy will take off from launchpad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Apollo moon missions and space shuttle flights also launched at this same site--quite the historic launchpad!
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It has a key, lower section comprised of three Falcon 9 booster cores holding nine engines each. Together, these cores generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust and allow the rocket to carry more than 140,000 pounds of cargo into low-Earth orbit.
For actual launches, SpaceX designed the three cores so they return to Earth and land back at the Kennedy Space Center. For this test launch, two of the cores will break away and return to the landing pad, while the third core lands on a remote controlled SpaceX drone hovering over the Atlantic Ocean.
As for the cargo? The Falcon’s main passenger is SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s cherry red Tesla roadster. There is no scientific reason to send a car into space, but when asked on Twitter about why he wanted to send the car to space, Musk replied: “I love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future.”
If all goes according to plan, the roadster will enter heliocentric orbit and will eventually head to