Quartz By Tim Fernholz April 9, 2019
The Falcon Heavy rocket is the most powerful operational rocket in the world, designed to fly the largest satellites into the highest orbits over the earth. The communications satellite being flown in this launch, Arabsat-6A, weighs about six metric tons (6.6 tons). The launch was scheduled for April 10 but poor weather conditions postponed the mission.
Though this is just the second flight of the rocket, a smooth mission could bring Elon Musk closer to his dreams of taking humanity out into the solar system. NASA has set a new goal of landing humans on the moon in 2024 that may require SpaceX’s help to achieve.
Human motivations
SpaceX is still showing NASA that its rockets are safe enough to fly astronauts to the International Space Station. A successful test run of that mission in March showed that the company’s Dragon spacecraft was capable of successfully flying to the ISS, docking with the orbital habitat, and then returning to earth to splashdown in the ocean. That means the company could actually launch a crewed flight later this year, pending a few other loose ends.
SpaceX’s rocket only has about 60% of the lifting power of the SLS, but it costs about one-tenth per launch thanks in part to its reusable boosters, and it is flying today. Using it for the moon mission would come with its own technical hurdles, like figuring out how to mate the spacecraft, called Orion, with the Falcon Heavy, and then to re-fuel it in orbit.
It might be feasible, but only if the Falcon Heavy continues to demonstrate its capabilities with this launch and four others scheduled in the coming years.
More:
https://qz.com/1590841/falcon-heavy-launch-could-lead-to-moon-missions/
