Commercial spaceflight company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) on Wednesday broke ground on the Vandenberg Air Force Base launch site for the Falcon Heavy, the world's largest rocket.
Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and chief rocket designer, joined California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, 30th Space Wing Commander Colonel Richard W. Boltz, and Lompoc Mayor John Linn to get things started on the site, which is expected to be operational late next year.
SpaceX unveiled plans for the Falcon Heavy in April. It 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. Its 27 engines have 3.8 million pounds of thrust, which is equivalent to 15 747s at full power. According to SpaceX, this new rocket will have twice the performance of the Delta IV Heavy, which launched from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base in January.
The Falcon Heavy is set to arrive at Vandenberg at the end of 2012, with its inaugural flight to follow soon after. SpaceX plans a launch from its Cape Canaveral site in 2013 or 2014.
Commercial rockets like the Falcon Heavy are in line to take over for NASA's shuttle program, which will retire when Atlantis returns from the International Space Station next week. NASA is set to focus on deep-space exploration, while commercial vehicles will handle transport missions to the ISS. SpaceX said the Falcon Heavy has twice the capacity of the space shuttle.
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. The Falcon 9 rocket and its Dragon test capsule launched successfully from Florida's Kennedy Space Center in December, the first successful launch for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.
SpaceX also has more than $2.5 billion in contracts to deliver satellites to orbit in the next few years, and in November, it obtained a license from the FAA to re-enter a spacecraft from orbit. Still, Wednesday's release complained that United Launch Alliance, a joint Boeing-Lockheed Martin venture that produced the Delta IV Heavy, has "a sole-source monopoly contract for Defense Department business."
"These are difficult fiscal times for our federal government and the Falcon vehicles can save the Department of Defense almost $2 billion per year in launch costs, while increasing reliability and capability," Musk said in a statement. "This presents a great opportunity for the DoD to avoid cancelling other programs and minimize reductions in personnel as budgets contract."
With the Vandenberg launch site, SpaceX will be able to compete for a "full range of US government business, provided competition is allowed," SpaceX said.
United Launch Alliance, meanwhile, is scheduled to launch the Delta IV rocket on July 15 from Cape Canaveral, which will carry the GPS IIF-2, the second of the Air Force's next-generation GPS satellites. "The IIF series incorporate various improvements to provide greater accuracy, increased signals, and enhanced performance for users," ULA said.