The company Elon Musk is planning to make the first full-fledged flight of a new heavy-class launch vehicle Falcon Heavy in November 2017. This entrepreneur wrote on Twitter.
Falcon Heavy is a larger version of the current SpaceX Falcon 9 missile, consisting of its three accelerators. In November, the company also plans to plant all three boosters on platforms at Cape Canaveral and a floating ocean barge. "If we are lucky," - writes Musk.
The SpaceX missile can become the most powerful of the existing ones, almost doubling the figure of the current Delta IV leader from ULA. Falcon Heavy will be able to deliver 54 metric tons to low Earth orbit versus 28.4 tons now. At the same time, one launch of the SpaceX rocket is more than four times cheaper than that of the ULA: "only" $ 90 instead of $ 400 million.
Falcon Heavy is necessary for the delivery of heavy loads and missions aimed at deep space into orbit. So announced in February this year, the flight of two space tourists to the moon should take place on a heavy launch vehicle.
However, the first flight of a heavy launch vehicle was already carried at least three times. The initial test was due in 2013-2014. The delays are primarily due to the complexity of the rocket. Each Accelerator Falcon Heavy has nine engines. Therefore, at the start there are only 27 of them and they should start simultaneously. In addition, the rocket experiences threefold loads of vibration and SpaceX had to reconsider the design of the central booster.
But the launch in November this year is more likely than before. In May, the company conducted a static test of the central accelerator, and photos of the SpaceX hangar at Cape Canaveral show that all three boosters are already on the site. In the first flight, the Falcon Heavy side accelerators will use spacecraft already flying into space.
However, the Mask itself is not too optimistic about the test flight. "There are good chances that it will not reach the orbit. I hope it flies far enough from the pad so as not to damage it - this will already seem to me a victory, "he said, speaking at the International Space Station R & D conference in late July. Mask admitted that the development of Falcon Heavy was much harder than originally expected in the company and that the team was "pretty naive" in their assessments.
Post created by @hrytsenko