SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has up the stakes of an already difficult situation by today tweeting that the SpaceX’s most powerful reusable rocket Falcon Heavy will launch next month from Apollo 11 pad. It was originally scheduled for November but the time was up for the launch. But, Elon Musk has seemingly confirmed the launch in the month of December.
Falcon Heavy to launch next month from Apollo 11 pad at the Cape. Will have double thrust of next largest rocket. Guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2017
Not only that, Falcon Heavy will be carrying Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster into the space. Musk first tweeted the idea on Friday evening.
Payload will be my midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity. Destination is Mars orbit. Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2017
These tweets have contradicted the reports that said that the Falcon Heavy may launch in the beginning of the year 2018.
The company is planning a static test fire of the rocket of Falcon Heavy with all 27 Merlin engines used simultaneously before the end of 2017. If that goes as per the planning, the full launch will take place within next week.
Musk has also spoken openly about the probability that the Falcon Heavy may explode during its first flight. Falcon Heavy is the followup to SpaceX’s Falcon 9. It’s a more powerful rocket that the company hopes to use for missions to the Moon and Mars and was originally supposed to launch in 2014.
SpaceX also ultimately plans to be able to recover all three rocket cores that power the Falcon Heavy, just like it’s done over the last year with main rocket booster stage of its Falcon 9s.