Elon Musk says SpaceX will launch the Falcon Heavy 'in a week or so'
SpaceX is about to light a very big candle.
SpaceX is planning to launch the first flight of its big new Falcon Heavy rocket "in a week or so," according to a tweet sent out by Elon Musk on Wednesday.
The announcement came just about an hour after the Musk-founded company fired up the Falcon Heavy's 27 engines for a test in which the rocket was held down on its pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Apparently, things went well with the test firing.
"Falcon Heavy hold-down firing this morning was good," Musk said in the tweet. "Generated quite a thunderhead of steam."
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The actual launch of the Falcon Heavy is sure to be stunning.
The Falcon Heavy is basically three Falcon 9 rockets — SpaceX's workhorse of a launcher — strapped together, giving it the ability to launch larger payloads than SpaceX has ever been able to haul before, to destinations like Mars.
The first payload for the Falcon Heavy, however, is just a fun one. Musk's company is launching a red Tesla Roadster blasting the song "Space Oddity" out into the solar system.
Of course, there's always a chance that the rocket may not work in exactly the way Musk wants it to.
"There's a lot of risk associated with the Falcon Heavy; real good chance that vehicle doesn't make it to orbit," Musk said during a talk in July 2017.
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It's also important to take Musk's timeframe for launch with a grain of salt.
SpaceX is known for its lofty goals when it comes to timescales and its rocket launches, particularly when it comes to the Falcon Heavy.
The company originally planned to launch the first flight of the new rocket sometime in 2015, but delays kept forcing SpaceX to push back the maiden voyage time and time again.
SpaceX also has a busy few weeks coming up, with its next Falcon 9 launch expected from Florida on Jan. 30, potentially overlapping with Musk's declared timeline for the Falcon Heavy.
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
