SpaceX’s most powerful rocket — which is also the most powerful rocket in the world at the moment — will take its second flight to space from Florida more than a year after its famous debut mission. It will be the Falcon Heavy’s very first customer launch, sending a communications satellite for Saudi Arabia to a high orbit above Earth. All three cores of the rocket will attempt to land back on Earth after takeoff.
The launch window opens at 6:35 p.m. EDT this evening and extends until 8:32 p.m. EDT on Thursday.
Falcon Heavy is a modified version of SpaceX’s standard Falcon 9 rocket, that’s essentially made up of three Falcon 9’s strapped together, albeit with a reinforced center core. It was built to serve as SpaceX’s heavy lift vehicle, with five million pounds of thrust capable of putting even large payloads into Earth orbit and beyond.
Falcon Heavy’s actual payload is the Saudi Arabian Arabsat-6A communications satellite, weighing a little over 13,000 pounds. The rocket is capable of delivering up to 59,000 pounds to a similar orbit, but that would mean SpaceX wouldn’t be able to recover their boosters for reuse. Whenever possible, SpaceX plans to launch at lower speeds so they can land and possibly reuse the boosters that make up Falcon Heavy.
Today’s launch follows a plan similar to Falcon Heavy’s first test flight last year. Then, the side boosters landed successfully while the center core missed its target on a barge at sea and was destroyed. Once again, the two side boosters will attempt a landing at Cape Canaveral. The standard Falcon 9 boosters have had multiple successful landings at this point, and they are expected to be reused for future missions.
This will be the first Falcon Heavy rocket to use the more powerful Block 5 boosters. The two first-stage side boosters will land back at Cape Canaveral while the center core will land on an off-shore drone ship.
In fact, the two side boosters that will fly are already earmarked for Falcon Heavy’s next flight, currently slated for June. That will be the first Falcon Heavy flight to re-use boosters.
The reinforced center booster will again attempt an ocean landing on the drone ship, where there is more margin for error. Because of its reinforcements, that booster is heavier, and because it is the center core, it flies higher and faster than the side boosters, increasing the difficulty of landing. After the missed landing in 2018, Musk revealed that the center core didn’t have enough ignition fluid to light all of its engines used for landing, and called the solution “obvious.” The true test will happen in a few hours, if Falcon Heavy can not only launch but also land its three boosters. You can watch the livestream here or on SpaceX’s website.