Elon Musk’s most ambitious rocket yet may finally be moving one step closer to its maiden voyage.
The highly anticipated static test fire on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy has been rescheduled following a number of delays, with new plans to conduct the tests ‘no earlier than’ Wednesday, according to Spaceflight Now.
In a static fire test, all of the Heavy’s 27 Merlin engines are fired up to make sure they can ignite properly.
It will be the first time that all of the Falcon Heavy’s engines are fired at once.
Elon Musk has announced SpaceX will launch ‘the world’s most powerful rocket’ in 2018 with his own electric car on board. The Falcon Heavy ‘megarocket’ (pictured) will fire beyond orbit from the former Apollo 11 moon rocket launchpad at the Kennedy Space Centre near Cape Canaveral, Florida
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon Heavy will be one step closer to liftoff.
There’s no guarantee the test will actually be completed on Wednesday, but if it does, it will bring an end to months of waiting and delays for the Falcon Heavy.
The test was postponed on Monday due to the government shutdown, which ended later on in the day after an 81-8 vote in the Senate.
The brief government shutdown not only affected NASA operations, but also SpaceX because it relies on personnel from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and the U.S. Air Force’s 45th Space Wing to oversee operations.
‘We remain hopeful that the Congress will quickly resolve their differences and put our partners in the Air Force and NASA back to doing their important work as soon as possible,’ said SpaceX spokesperson John Taylor in a statement to Engadget at the time.
‘This shutdown impacts SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy demonstration, which is critical for future NSS missions,’ Taylor continued.
‘It also impacts critical missions for our customers, including important international allies scheduled to launch shortly from Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base, as well as upcoming missions this spring to resupply the International Space Station.’
SpaceX has won two national security space contracts, or ‘NSS missions,’ so far.
The shutdown also impacted NASA operations, as the federal agency has been forced to send some workers home without pay.
Spaceflight Now tweeted on Tuesday that SpaceX could schedule its Falcon Heavy test-firing ‘no earlier than’ Wednesday. The test was previously postponed due to the now-resolved government shutdown
The official NASA Twitter and other accounts run by U.S. agencies have tweeted that they’re on hiatus during the government shutdown.
It’s not the first time that the Heavy launch has been delayed.
Musk had hoped to launch ‘the world’s most powerful rocket’ by the end of 2017, but now the company is aiming for liftoff sometime in 2018.
This week’s government shutdown could possibly push back the Heavy launch even further.
The Falcon Heavy ‘megarocket’ will fire beyond orbit from the former Apollo 11 moon rocket launchpad at the Kennedy Space Centre near Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Musk said the launch vehicle will blast off at the ‘end of the month’ on an unmanned mission with a unique payload – the billionaire’s cherry red 2008 Tesla Roadster, which will be fired toward Mars.
The rocket will use 27 engines and three separate re-usable cores that will return to Earth after liftoff during the test flight, which is set to be one of the firm’s most technically complex challenges to date.
Before the maiden launch, a full test firing of the rocket’s engines is expected next week, Musk said.
‘Falcon Heavy now vertical on the former Apollo 11 moon rocket launchpad,’ he wrote on Instagram on Thursday.
‘At 2,500 tons of thrust, equal to 18 Boeing 747 aircraft at full throttle, it will be the most powerful rocket in the world by a factor of two. Excitement on launch day guaranteed, one way or another.
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon Heavy will lift off and enter orbit before two of its booster rockets separate and return to Earth at Cape Canaveral in controlled landings. The centre core of the rocket will then separate from the main module, containing Musk’s car, and begin its own controlled descent back to Earth, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean
‘Hold-down test fire next week. Launch end of the month.’
When it lifts off for the first time in late January, the Falcon Heavy will become the most powerful rocket in the world thanks to its 5.1 million pounds of thrust generated through 27 Merlin engines.
The vast rocket, which is ultimately three Falcon 9 rockets linked together, will have the combined thrust to eventually launch 140,000 pounds (63,500kg) of cargo into orbit.
The mission marks SpaceX’s most ambitious project to date.
Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, with the aim of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonisation of Mars.
The 46-year-old South African is also the CEO of Tesla, and predicts Falcon Heavy’s payload will stay in deep space for a while.
Musk said the launch vehicle will blast off at the ‘end of the month’ on an unmanned mission with a unique payload – the billionaire’s cherry red 2008 Tesla Roadster, which will be fired toward Mars. Pictured is the car strapped into the Falcon Heavy’s main module
A photo of the unusual cargo – Musk’s cherry red 2008 Tesla Roadster – was released last month.
Images released by SpaceX show an original Roadster perched on a large cone inside the Falcon Heavy on what appears to be a secure mount to keep it stationary as the rocket makes its maiden flight.
‘Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks. That seemed extremely boring,’ Musk said in December.
‘Of course, anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel.
‘The payload will be an original Tesla Roadster, playing Space Oddity, on a billion year elliptic Mars orbit.’
If all goes according to plan, the Falcon Heavy will lift off and enter Earth’s orbit, before two of its booster rockets separate off and return to Earth at Cape Canaveral in controlled landings.
The rocket’s central core will then separate from the main module, containing Musk’s car, and begin its own controlled descent back to Earth, landing on the firm’s ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.
The main module will continue its trajectory into ‘deep space’, the billionaire said, with a destination set for the orbit of Mars 140 million miles (225 million kilometres) away.
Musk has said the payload ‘will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent.’
In a Washington, D.C., speech last July the Tesla founder which said Falcon Heavy is one of the most difficult and technically complex projects SpaceX has ever undertaken.
‘There’s a lot of risk associated with Falcon Heavy,’ he said during the 2017 International Space Station Research and Development Conference.
The rocket will use 27 engines and three separate re-usable cores that will return to Earth after liftoff during the test flight, which is set to be one of the firm’s most technically complex challenges to date
The vast rocket, which is ultimately three Falcon 9 rockets linked together, will have the combined thrust to eventually launch 140,000 pounds (63,500kg) of cargo into orbit
‘Real good chance that the vehicle doesn’t make it to orbit. I want to make sure to set expectations accordingly.’
Musk has spent the proceeding months building up hype for the historic launch with a series of social media posts.
Last month he posted an image to Twitter of people stoof next to a landed Falcon Heavy rocket to give an idea of the vehicle’s scale.
He tweeted: ‘Falcon Heavy launching from same @NASA pad as the Saturn V Apollo 11 moon rocket.
‘It was 50% higher thrust with five F-1 engines at 7.5M lb-F.
‘I love that rocket so much.’
He also confirmed the rocket will have a ‘max thrust at lift-off is 5.1 million pounds or 2300 metric tons,’ adding the first mission will run at 92 per cent capacity.
‘Falcon Heavy to launch next month from Apollo 11 pad at the Cape.
‘Will have double thrust of next largest rocket. Guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another,’ Musk originally posted.
Once the three main cores (pictured) of the rocket have separated, the main module will continue its trajectory into ‘deep space’, with a destination set for the orbit of Mars 140 million miles (225 million kilometres) away
Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, with the aim of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonisation of Mars. The 46-year-old South African is also the CEO of Tesla, and predicts Falcon Heavy’s (artist’s impression) payload will stay in deep space for a while