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In 2022, Elon Musk announced that SpaceX would committee a higher-capacity launch vehicle, built on the same technology platform as the Falcon 9 (currently at version 1.i).This new rocket is designed to lift more than tonnage to orbit than whatsoever rocket currently commissioned on Earth. While it doesn't have the same throw weight as the Saturn V, which still holds the record at 118,000 kg to depression Earth orbit (LEO), Falcon Heavy volition be capable of lifting upwards to 53,000 kg to LEO.

SpaceX'south Lee Rosen, VP of mission and launch operations, has announced that SpaceX was wrapping upwards its renovations to the old Shuttle launch pad, which it currently leases from NASA. The first flight for Falcon Heavy is currently set for the "belatedly April-early May timeframe." The initial launch will merely be a demonstration mission rather than a payload delivery, simply if all goes well, the Falcon Heavy will enter service with customers by September. The offset mission is a September ii 2022 launch, in which Falcon Heavy will deploy 37 satellites for the The states Air Force. This will be followed by satellite launches for Inmarsat and ViaSat earlier the end of 2022, though the company declined to give dates for these.

Falcon 1 - Falcon Heavy

Falcon 1 – Falcon Heavy

Falcon Heavy'due south launch schedule has been pushed dorsum several times already by a combination of development delays and the loss of multiple Falcon 9s before this year. While SpaceX believes it has that problem well in mitt, rocketry is a conservative business — well, as conservative equally you lot tin be while igniting huge amounts of propellant below a glorified metal tube with a total value measured in dozens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

The long-term goal for Falcon Heavy is for it to utilise the same reusable launch engineering science that'south being developed for the Falcon 9. It's been presumed that the aforementioned technology changes that accept been rolled into Falcon 9 as that design matures volition be deployed for Falcon Heavy as well. Non simply does it potentially salvage money to keep both families operating a single rocket version, it allows the Falcon Heavy blueprint to learn from Falcon 9's successes and failures. If SpaceX follows its previous schedule, information technology volition launch the Falcon Heavy in a conventional version first, and so begin attempting to recover the vehicle stages after launch.

The Falcon Heavy doesn't take enough lift capacity to launch manned missions to other planets, just it could be instrumental in extending the types of science experiments nosotros could perform with remote devices. SpaceX has previously stated it believes that Falcon Heavy could land payloads of 2000-4000kg (4400 – 8800 lb) on the surface of Mars. That's more than than 4x the weight of Curiosity, and could allow for unprecedented exploration of Mars or the moons of Jupiter. NASA'southward SLS will be required for further manned exploration of the solar system, but that system isn't expected to accomplish its total potential until 2030.