When SpaceX successfully launched its first Falcon Heavy booster Tuesday (Feb. 6) from the same Florida pad used by NASA's Apollo missions, the company claimed the title for the most powerful rocket. And for some companies, that might be a year-defining feat.
But SpaceX and its CEO, Elon Musk, have a lot more coming this year, including launching astronauts on its crewed Dragon spacecraft and preparing its Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) for potential tests in 2019.
First, there's the Falcon Heavy, on which SpaceX spent nearly $500 million over seven years to enter the heavy-lift market for launching huge satellites and spacecraft off planet Earth. The rocket can carry twice as much payload as its closest competitor (United Launch Alliance's Delta IV Heavy) at a lower cost, and its three first-stage boosters are designed to be reusable. For SpaceX, that's a launch vehicle triple threat.
"Falcon Heavy opens up a new class of payload," Musk told reporters after Tuesday's launch. "It can launch twice as much payload as any other rocket in the world … It can launch things right to Pluto and beyond, no stop needed." [SpaceX's 1st Falcon Heavy Rocket Test Flight in Pictures]
