Falcon Heavy

About Falcon Heavy

What are Falcon Heavy?

Falcon Heavy is a large cargo-lifting rocket built by the US corporation SpaceX with funding from South African-born American entrepreneur Elon Musk. Falcon Heavy is part of the privately developed family of three Falcon launch vehicles - Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.

Falcon Heavy is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Falcon Heavy has the highest payload capacity of any currently operational launch vehicle. Falcon Heavy is designed to carry 53,000 kg to orbit, nearly twice that of its largest competitor, the Boeing Company’s Delta IV Heavy.

Falcon Heavy launches

The first Falcon Heavy test flight occurred on February 6, 2018. The rocket carried a Tesla Roadster belonging to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, with a dummy dubbed "Starman" in the driver's seat, as a dummy payload. The second Falcon Heavy launch occurred on April 11, 2019 and all three booster rockets successfully returned to Earth. The third Falcon Heavy launch successfully occurred on June 25, 2019. Since then, Falcon Heavy has been certified for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) programme.

Falcon Heavy was designed to be able to carry humans into space beyond low Earth orbit, although as of February 2018, SpaceX has confirmed that they will not transport people on Falcon Heavy, nor pursue the human-rating certification process to transport Nasa astronauts. Both Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9 will eventually be superseded by the in-development Starship launch system.

The Falcon Heavy has the capability to carry 63,800 kg payload to low earth orbit or LEO. The launch vehicle is designed to carry a payload of 26,700 kg of payload to the geosynchronous transfer orbit or GTO and is also capable of lifting a payload of 16,800 kg for a trip to Mars.

Latest Updates on Falcon Heavy

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket wins approval for return to space, says FAA

SpaceX engineers were able to determine the root cause of the issue mere hours after the botched flight

Updated On: 26 Jul 2024 | 8:02 AM IST

Inspiration4: SpaceX to launch world's first all-civilian astronaut mission

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has previously expressed interest in joining a SpaceX mission, told reporters that he will not be on the Inspiration-4 missiom

Updated On: 02 Feb 2021 | 8:53 AM IST

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Falcon Heavy: SpaceX's amazing launch, but what about environmental impact?

Building bigger rockets with bigger payloads means more fuel is used for each launch. The current fuel for Falcon Heavy is RP-1 and liquid oxygen, which creates a lot of carbon dioxide when burnt

Updated On: 08 Feb 2018 | 12:25 PM IST

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Musk's Mars plans: SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket soars in debut test launch

The demonstration flight put the Falcon Heavy into the annals of spaceflight as the world's most powerful rocket in operation, with more lift capacity than any space vehicle to fly since NASA's Saturn

Updated On: 07 Feb 2018 | 7:22 AM IST

Elon Musk's SpaceX planning to launch its Falcon Heavy rocket on February 6

The Falcon Heavy, a reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle, is seen as the world's most powerful rocket since NASA's Saturn V moon rocket in the 1960s

Updated On: 28 Jan 2018 | 10:50 AM IST