Cancel

gear Push settings

bars

homehome Home chatchat Notifications


SpaceX reveals plans for world's most powerful rocket

  NASA is going through one of it’s hardest periods ever, but that doesn’t mean that the space research and industry is too; take a look at SpaceX, a private company that already successfully launched a rocket, Falcon, into outer space last year. Now, they’re planning something even bigger. Falcon Heavy has about twice as […]

Mihai Andrei
April 6, 2011 @ 10:05 am

share Share

 

An artist's depiction of the Falcon Heavy rocket

NASA is going through one of it’s hardest periods ever, but that doesn’t mean that the space research and industry is too; take a look at SpaceX, a private company that already successfully launched a rocket, Falcon, into outer space last year. Now, they’re planning something even bigger.

Falcon Heavy has about twice as much lifting capacity as the soon to be retired shuttle, which makes it the most powerful rocket on the face of the Earth, and SpaceX sees here a great chance to fill in for NASA’s future space missions, especially as the rocket has been constructed to meet NASA’s requirements.

At $80 to $125 million per launch, Falcon Heavy will be 3 or 4 times cheaper than a conventional NASA space shuttle, and it will be capable of regular ISS transport, trips to asteroids, or even an unmaned mission to Mars. SpaceX says they expect Falcon Heavy to be ready next year, and the first launch will probably take place in 2013.

It’s great to see a private company doing things like this, and if NASA knows how to collaborate with them, it will definitely go a long way towards getting out of the crisis they seem to be stuck in.

share Share

The Sun Will Annihilate Earth in 5 Billion Years But Life Could Move to Jupiter's Icy Moon Europa

When the Sun turns into a Red Giant, Europa could be life's final hope in the solar system.

A Massive Particle Blasted Through Earth and Scientists Think It Might Be The First Detection of Dark Matter

A deep-sea telescope may have just caught dark matter in action for the first time.

Scientists Used Lasers To Finally Explain How Tiny Dunes Form -- And This Might Hold Clues to Other Worlds

Decoding how sand grains move and accumulate on Earth can also help scientists understand dune formation on Mars.

Astronomers Claim the Big Bang May Have Taken Place Inside a Black Hole

Was the “Big Bang” a cosmic rebound? New study suggests the Universe may have started inside a giant black hole.

Astronomers Just Found the Most Powerful Cosmic Event Since the Big Bang. It's At Least 25 Times Stronger Than Any Supernova

The rare blasts outshine supernovae and reshape how we study black holes.

Terraforming Mars Might Actually Work and Scientists Now Have a Plan to Try It

Can we build an ecosystem on Mars — and should we?

New Simulations Suggest the Milky Way May Never Smash Into Andromeda

A new study questions previous Milky Way - Andromeda galaxy collision assumptions.

China Is Building The First AI Supercomputer in Space

China wants to turn space satellites into a giant cloud server.

China and Russia Plan to Build a Nuclear Power Plant on the Moon by 2035 Leaving the US Behind

A new kind of space race unfolds on the moon's south pole.

A Decade After The Martian, Hollywood’s Mars Timeline Is Falling Apart

NASA hasn’t landed humans on Mars yet. But thanks to robotic missions, scientists now know more about the planet’s surface than they did when the movie was released.