Overview
Manufacturer: SpaceX
Cost: $90 million
Stages: 2
Boosters: 2
Height: 70 m (229.6 ft)
Diameter: 12.2 m (39.9 ft)
Mass: 1,420,788 kgs (3,125,735 lbs)
Payload capacity (to LEO): 63,800 kgs (140,660 lbs)
Maiden flight: February 6, 2018
Stage 1
Length: 40 m (est)
Engine: 9x Merlin 1D+
Fuel: LOX/RP-1
Thrust: 7,607 kN (1,710,000 lbf)
Burn Time: 187 seconds
Stage 2
Length: 40 m (est)
Engine: 9x Merlin 1D+
Fuel: LOX/RP-1
Thrust: 934 kN (210,000 lbf)
Burn Time: 397 seconds
Boosters
Length: 16 m (est)
Engine: 9x Merlin 1D+
Fuel: LOX/RP-1
Thrust: 7,607 kN (1,710,000 lbf)
Burn Time: 154 seconds
The Falcon Heavy is a modified Falcon 9 launch vehicle with two additional Falcon 9 first stages as strap-on boosters. The result is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle that features 27 first-stage Merlin engines. The Falcon Heavy was designed primarily to launch crewed mission to space enabling the potential for the exploration of Mars and the Moon.
Although development of the Falcon Heavy didn’t officially get underway until 2011, concepts for the launch vehicle were being discussed as early as 2004. Originally scheduled for a maiden flight in 2013, the failure of two Falcon 9 launch vehicles and the complexity of the design delayed its launch by years. SpaceX founder and CEO, Elon Musk admitted in July 2017 that development of the Falcon Heavy had been “way more difficult than we originally thought.”
When it was first launched in February 2018, the Falcon Heavy became the most powerful operational launch vehicle by a factor of two. Capable of lifting over 54 metric tons (119,000 lbs), the Falcon Heavy allows for payloads twice the mass of it’s next nearest rival, the Delta IV Heavy at one-third the cost. The Heavy will also become the fourth most powerful rocket of all time behind the Saturn V, the Space Shuttle and the Soviet N1.
