SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the company’s new Falcon Heavy rocket would soon launch for the first time, after months of pushing back its debut liftoff.
Musk shared photos on Twitter Jan. 24 of an engine test-fire, showing clouds of smoke unfurling from underneath the rocket.
“Falcon Heavy hold-down firing this morning was good,” Musk wrote. “Generated quite a thunderhead of steam.” He added that the rocket would be “launching in a week or so.”
The Falcon Heavy is a beefed-up version of the Falcon 9 rocket, with a rocket core flanked on both sides by extra boosters. The upgrade will allow the new rocket to carry a much heavier payload into space.
Although Falcon Heavy was originally scheduled to go up in November, its launch has been pushed back a number of times. A few days into the new year, SpaceX announced the launch would finally take place at the end of January.
When the rocket finally embarks upon its maiden launch, its mission will be carrying Musk’s Tesla Roadster into orbit around Mars. The Tesla CEO said in December that the Roadster would be playing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and “will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent.”
He has also posted a photo of the electric car in its seat aboard the rocket.
“Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks,” he wrote on Instagram. “That seemed extremely boring. Of course, anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel.”
