The Falcon Heavy is finally on its way to mars and this rocket has had its fair share of delays. Elon Musk gave us a first glimpse of the rocket a couple of months ago and then a little later announced the unique cargo that it would be carrying. At the start of this year, he announced that the rocket will be launched within the first month but there were more unexpected delays and things finally got back on track as it completed the static test last week.
The Falcon Heavy Rocket launched its test flight successfully from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Millions of fans from all around the globe watched the launch go off without a hitch. The Falcon Heavy has 27 engines which give a thrust equal to 18 Boeing (BA) 747 jetliners making it the biggest rocket ever made. “It’s the biggest rocket in the world by far,” SpaceX CEO Musk told CNN’s Rachel Crane on Monday.
The Falcon Heavy consists of three thrusters which landed back on Earth safely. This is something that worried even Elon Musk who spoke about his fears before the launch. “The separation system that tosses off the side boosters has never been tested before in space. This is really a crazy amount of power coming through this, and it’s really a miracle that the rocket holds together at all.”
Even though Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket ever made, it has a surprisingly low cost as compared to others. Each flight of the rocket starts at $90 million, which is a low figure in the space industry. To give you an idea of how cheap it actually is, the closest rivals are the United Alliance operating the Delta IV Heavy at $350 million per launch. This makes it almost 4 times cheaper than the rivals.
Musk has reminded everyone that this is only a test mission with a huge amount of risk. That did not stop him from sending his own Tesla Roadster as the cargo. Musk tweeted earlier this year, “I love the thought of a car drifting apparently endlessly through space and perhaps being discovered by an alien race millions of years in the future.”
As the first launch was a success, it is believed that the four further launches planned for this very year will be going on schedule and will bring Elon Musk closer to his dream of leading a team of humans to Mars. You can see the video of the test launch here:
