SpaceX's New Rocket Ready for First Flight

SpaceX’s huge rocket makes its first launch this week. It will leave from the same launch pad that sent men to the moon almost 50 years ago.

The rocket, called the ‘Falcon 1 Heavy’, could be launched as early as Tuesday. When it does, it will be the most powerful working rocket in use today.

The Falcon Heavy represents an important moment for the private space company created 16 years ago by Elon Musk 2. The rocket will be capable of lifting extremely large satellites into orbit and sending spacecraft to the moon, Mars 3 and beyond.

The rocket already has several customers, including the U.S. Air Force.

“I can’t wait to see it fly and to see it fly again and again,” said the Southwest Research Institute’s Alan Stern 4. He’s the lead scientist for NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which recently flew by Pluto 5.

Cape 6 Canaveral, the launch location, has not seen this kind of excitement since the last space shuttle flight in 2011. The city expects huge crowds for the afternoon launch from Kennedy Space Center. Visitor center tickets for the best viewing, called “Feel the Heat” and “Closest Package,” sold out quickly.

The Heavy is capable of delivering 63,800 kilograms of cargo 7 to low-Earth orbit, nearly 26,700 kilograms to high-Earth orbit, and smaller cargo to Mars and Pluto.

But for its first flight, the rocket will carry Musk’s red Tesla Roadster automobile 8. In addition to SpaceX, he runs the electric car maker 9 Tesla.

“Red car for a red planet,” Musk tweeted in December, when announcing the surprise cargo. New rockets usually carry blocks of steel or other heavy material instead of true cargo. But Musk felt that was “extremely boring.”

The rocket is intended to continually orbit around the sun, wide enough to pass by Mars. The car will be playing the song “Space Oddity,” by the musician David Bowie

New business era for space travel

NASA officials said the Falcon Heavy is the latest evidence of the Kennedy Space Center’s transformation 10 into a multi-user spaceport. This is a change after many years of launching the space agency’s space shuttles.

Besides Space X, NASA is building its own Space Launch System, or SLS, mega-rocket. And Blue Origin, led by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, is also developing a big, reusable orbital-class rocket

The Heavy Falcon costs around $90 million, which is still cheaper than the larger SLS rocket being built by NASA. It is expected to cost over $1 billion a flight.

In 2010, SpaceX became the first private company to launch a spacecraft into orbit and then safely guide it back to Earth, something only large governments had done. Two years later, SpaceX became the first commercial supplier of the International Space Station. Now the company wants to have the first commercial crew launch.

Retired 11 NASA historian 12 and Smithsonian curator Roger Launius warned that SpaceX has “a long history of overpromising,” although eventually succeeding.

The Heavy’s first flight, for example, has been delayed for years. Musk has admitted the rocket proved harder to build than he thought. He has also been warning for months the rocket might not make it higher than the launch tower.

However, Launius says he is happy for anyone who creates a successful rocket, and will congratulate Musk if he succeeds.

I’m Phil Dierking.

Words in This Story

afternoon - n. the middle part of the day?

cargo - n. something that is carried from one place to another by boat, airplane, etc.?

customer - n. someone who buys goods or services from a business?

cheap - adj. not costing a lot of money?

commercial - adj. related to or used in the buying and selling of goods and services?

curator - n. a person who is in charge of the things in a museum, zoo, etc.?

deliver - v. to take (something) to a person or place?

intend - adj. to plan or want to do (something) ?

location - n. a place or position?

package - n. a group of related things that are sold together for a single price?

pad - n. a flat area on the ground where helicopters can take off or land?

spacecraft - n. a vehicle that is used for travel in outer space?

spaceport - n. a base from which spacecraft are launched.?

tower - n. a tall, narrow building or structure that may stand apart from or be attached to another building or structure?

transformation - n. a complete or major change in someone's or something's appearance, form, etc.?

viewing - n. the things that can be seen from a particular place