Image from the Starman live broadcast taken in Tesla's Ilona Mask machine after launching into orbit
By sending the most powerful rocket into space, the founder of SpaceX, Ilon Musk, put another tick in the list of space achievements. Now everyone is interested in what goals the rocket will fulfill and what the company itself is waiting for.
Satellites
Falcon Heavy is capable of launching heavier loads than other missiles. This is twice as much as the closest rival Delta-4 from the United Launch Alliance.
By releasing his personal car into space, Musk not only captured a revolution in the history of space, but also showed potential customers that SpaceX was ready to cope with any task.
With reusable accelerators SpaceX has a clear economic advantage. One launch costs $ 90 million, which is three times cheaper than competitors offer. He has already managed to attract the US Air Force and Arabsat (a consortium of Arab countries willing to put communication satellites into orbit).
But Musk did not lose sight of the fact that while the company created a powerful rocket, the market has changed. During this time, small rockets delivering small vehicles have become valued in everyday life. But here, too, SpaceX has a sector thanks to Falcon 9.
Flight to the Moon
A year ago, Ilon Musk announced that he had signed an agreement to send two passengers to orbit around the moon, which was not done after the completion of the Apollo mission in 1972. Space tourists will travel to the passenger version of the Dragon capsule, which NASA has already used to deliver cargo to the ISS. Space tourism is a promising industry, but this service is currently available only for the richest members of humanity. But not only SpaceX is interested in Luna. In December 2017, Donald Trump also pointed out the desire of America to create a lunar base in order to further move to Mars. But the American president quite vaguely described the details, and also did not describe the details of the sponsorship and the date of the launches.
Mars
Ilon Musk has repeatedly said that the creation of a Martian colony is its long-term goal, and Falcon Heavy is another step in this ambitious project. The next development is the Falcon Heavy receiver, known as the BFR (Big Fucking Rocket). As a result, it should replace Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9, as well as the Dragon capsule.
The first test flight is scheduled for 2019, the orbital test is 2020, and in 2022 the first cargo can fly to the Red Planet. Musk says that the successful launch of Falcon Heavy made him even more convinced that the future BFR will work.
