SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Rocket

In News

• Recently, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy rocket into a geosynchronous Earth orbit from the Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, U.S.
  • The rocket is carrying satellites to space for the U.S. military in a mission named U.S. Space Force (USSF)-44.

Falcon Heavy rocket

• It is considered as the most powerful operational rocket in the world.
• Dimensions
  • The rocket has a height of 70 m, a width of 12.2 m and a mass of 1,420,788 kg.
• Specifications
  • It has a lifting capacity of around 64 metric tonnes into orbit.
  • It can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy.
  • Falcon Heavy has 27 Merlin engines which together generate more than five million pounds of thrust at lift-off, equalling around eighteen 747 aircraft at full power.
    • This makes it the most capable rocket flying.
    • Merlin is a family of rocket engines developed by SpaceX for use on its Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles. 
    • Merlin engines use RP-1 and liquid oxygen as rocket propellants in a gas-generator power cycle. These engines were designed for recovery and reuse.

Source: TH