World's most powerful rocket set to launch by late 2013

By Richard Hartley-parkinson
Last updated at 9:45 AM on 6th April 2011

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The Falcon 9-Heavy will be able carry more than twice the amount of satellites or spacecraft into orbit than its closest rival

The most powerful rocket since the Apollo missions has been unveiled and is set to launch in 2013.

The Falcon 9-Heavy will be able to put 53tonnes of satellites or spacecraft into orbit – more than twice the amount its closest rival, the Delta IV Heavy, can carry.

Falcon Heavy’s first stage will be made up of three nine-engine cores and will be powered with Merlin engines, currently being tested in Texas.

Elon Musk, chief executive and designer of Space Exploration Technologies, said: ‘Falcon Heavy will carry more payload to orbit or escape velocity than any vehicle in history, apart from the Saturn V moon rocket, which was decommissioned after the Apollo programme.

‘This opens a new world of capability for both government and commercial space missions.’

The space craft is due to arrive in Vandenberg, California, at the end of next year with plans for a lift-off from Cape Canaveral as early as late 2013 or 2014.

At lift-off, Falcon Heavy will generate 3.8million lbs of thrust – equal to the thrust of 15 Boeing 747s taking off at the same time.

Each launch will cost between $80million and $125million (£50million and £76million), which will work out at about $1,000 (£610) per pound of payload.

SpaceX, the company behind the rocket, says breaks records in affordable space flight providing relief to Government budgets.

It has been designed so that it can carry people and even if there were multiple engine failures or if one of the engines exploded, there are measures to prevent it from affecting other engines or the vehicle itself.

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