Commercial spaceflight company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) this week unveiled plans for the Falcon Heavy, which SpaceX said will be the world's largest rocket.
The Falcon Heavy will be capable of carrying over 117,000 pounds to orbit, the equivalent of an entire commercial airplane full of passengers, crew, luggage, and fuel.
According to SpaceX, its new rocket will have twice the performance of the Delta IV Heavy, which launched from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base in January.SpaceX said the Falcon Heavy will arrive at its Vandenberg launch complex by the end of 2012, with liftoff to follow soon thereafter. The first launch from SpaceX's Cape Canaveral complex is expected in late 2013 or 2014. At this point, the company is testing its upgraded Merlin engines at the SpaceX rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas.
Falcon Heavy will actually include three nine-engine cores, which will allow it to continue its mission even if multiple engines fail. Each engine is surrounded by a protective shell that will shield it in the event of a fire, chamber rupture, or other disaster.
Falcon Heavy will generate 3.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, which is similar to the thrust of 15 Boeing 747s taking off at the same time, SpaceX said.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and its Dragon test capsule launched successfully from Florida's Kennedy Space Center in December. It was the first successful launch for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program and another step for the future of commercial space flight. NASA's COTS program will provide cargo flights to the International Space Station after the Space Shuttle fleet is retired in 2011. At that point, SpaceX said it will make at least 12 flights to carry cargo to and from the ISS.
In 2008, NASA awarded SpaceX a launch services contract that allowed it to compete for missions using the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles. SpaceX also has more than $2.5 billion in contracts to deliver satellites to orbit in the next few years, Space.com reports. In November, it obtained a license from the FAA to re-enter a spacecraft from orbit.
Falcon Heavy will cost between $80 million and $125 million per launch, though SpaceX argued this is a bargain since it "includes all non-recurring development costs and on-orbit delivery of an agreed upon mission." It carries twice the payload of the Delta IV Heavy at one-third of the cost, or about $1,000 per pound, SpaceX said.
The 2012 budget for four Air Force launches is $1.74 billion, or about $435 million per launch.
An animation of the Falcon Heavy launch is available on the SpaceX YouTube channel.