The initial test flight for the first Falcon Heavy lifted off on 6 February 2018, at 20:45 UTC, carrying its dummy payload, Elon Musk's personal Tesla Roadster, beyond Mars orbit. In July 2017, Elon Musk said, "It actually ended up being way harder to do Falcon Heavy than we thought. The integration and structural challenges of combining three Falcon 9 cores were much more difficult than expected. Ī number of factors delayed the planned maiden flight to 2018, including two anomalies with Falcon 9 launch vehicles, which required all engineering resources to be dedicated to failure analysis, halting flight operations for many months. news conference in April 2011, with an initial test flight expected in 2013. SpaceX unveiled the plan for the Falcon Heavy to the public at a Washington, D.C. The concept for three core booster stages of the company's as-yet-unflown Falcon 9 was referred to in 2005 as the Falcon 9 Heavy. SpaceX breaking ground at Vandenberg Air Force Base, SLC-4E in June 2011 for the Falcon Heavy launch padĬoncepts for a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle using three Falcon 1 core boosters, with an approximate payload-to-LEO capacity of two tons, were initially discussed as early as 2003. Both Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9 are expected to eventually be superseded by the Starship launch system, currently being developed. įalcon Heavy was designed to be able to carry humans into space beyond low Earth orbit, although as of February 2018, SpaceX does not intend to transport people on Falcon Heavy, nor pursue the human-rating certification process to transport NASA astronauts. Since then, Falcon Heavy has been certified for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program. The third Falcon Heavy launch successfully occurred on 25 June 2019. The second Falcon Heavy launch occurred on 11 April 2019, and all three booster rockets successfully returned to Earth.
As a dummy payload, the rocket carried a Tesla Roadster belonging to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, with a mannequin dubbed "Starman" in the driver's seat. SpaceX conducted Falcon Heavy's maiden launch on 6 February 2018, at 20:45 UTC. Falcon Heavy has the second highest payload capacity of any currently operational launch vehicle behind NASA's Space Launch System, and the fourth-highest capacity of any rocket to reach orbit, trailing behind SLS, Energia and the Saturn V. The rocket consists of a center core on which two Falcon 9 boosters are attached, and a second stage on top of the center core. Falcon Heavy is a partially reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo into Earth orbit and beyond, manufactured and launched by American aerospace company SpaceX.
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