[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]With SpaceX set for the historic launch of Falcon Heavy next month, the company raised the rocket vertical Thursday on launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Falcon Heavy, which is expected to be the most powerful rocket ever launched, has suffered setbacks for years. But, with the launch vehicle now on the pad, SpaceX is ready to perform a static test fire ahead of an actual launch. Falcon Heavy’s first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft.
The fully-assembled 229-foot-tall rocket will have a unique payload for its maiden launch, CEO Elon Musk’s red 2008 Tesla Roadster. SpaceX hopes to send the car into a heliocentric solar orbit that will take it to the approximate distance of Mars from the sun.
A time-lapse of the rocket being raised vertical is below.[/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U27rJWV4l0″ video_title=”1″][/vc_column][/vc_row]