The world’s largest operational rocket will soon be launched. SpaceX is all set to fire up the Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time. The static fire test is a very important test before the maiden launch. The CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk says that the test went smoothly without any problem. If everything works according to plan, the Falcon Heavy will take off in the early February and will become the most powerful rocket to take flight since the Saturn V rocket. It was the part of the Apollo missions in the 60s and 70s.
Falcon Heavy is the evolution of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and has three of the cores binded together. This equals 27 engines generate a maximum thrust of 5.1 million pounds, which is equal to eighteen 747s. The engines were first ignited at the Cape Canaveral in a static test fire. This test is a part of launch preparations. It checks the engines fired up while the vehicle is still attached to the launchpad with tethers.
The static tests have not gone smoothly for SpaceX every time. A static fire test of Falcon 9 caused an explosion at the launchpad which resulted in a loss of a multi-million dollar satellite. However, with the static test of Falcon Heavy, no such problems were faced. Musk also confirmed in a tweet about the successful completion of the tests. He said, “Falcon Heavy hold-down firing this morning was good. Generated quite a thunderhead of steam. Launching in a week or so.”
The launch of the Falcon Heavy can or cannot be successful. Musk said that if the rocket flies to a height where the damage to the launchpad can be avoided, it will be considered a success. The chances of the explosion also didn’t stop Musk to load his own midnight cherry red Tesla Roadster into the rocket as a payload. Following video shows the static fire tests in action.
