SpaceX teases a photo of the Falcon Heavy, the world's most powerful rocket

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By Matthew Griffin Space 31st December 2016

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

If you want to build a colony on Mars you need a big rocket to move a lot of stuff – it’s as simple as that

SpaceX’s massive new rocket, the Falcon Heavy, hasn’t taken flight yet, but when it does, it will be the most powerful rocket in the world – by a factor of two, and the company is banking on this to be the booster that takes people to Mars. On Wednesday SpaceX shared a photograph of the rocket, complete with snazzy logo, on Instagram.

“Heavy interstage being prepped at the rocket factory,” reads the caption, “when FH flies next year, it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two.”

Falcon Heavy interstage being prepped at the rocket factory. When FH flies next year, it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two.

A photo posted by SpaceX (@spacex) on Dec 28, 2016 at 12:33pm PST

The Falcon Heavy’s will have a thrust of 5.1 million pounds force on liftoff, which dwarfs everything that’s come before it – and it will be able to transport 54 tonnes into space in a single journey for a third of the cost of the next biggest rocket.

“Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit,” said the company’s representative.

The first launch of the rocket was supposed to take place in 2016, but was pushed back due to the explosion of a Falcon 9 in September. Now the first launch is expected to take place in early 2017 but it’s clear that not everybody has forgotten about the incident.

“Anyone else read ‘most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two’ as ‘Will be the biggest and coolest explosion you have ever seen’?” said one person on SpaceX’s Facebook post.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Matthew Griffin, multi-award winning Futurist and named Futurist of the Year 2024, has been described as a "Walking encyclopaedia of the future" by NASA and a futurist polymath. One of the world's most renowned futurists and strategic foresight experts Matthew is the 15 times author of the blockbuster "Codex of the Future" series, and is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working across the next 50 years, XPotential University, the world's first free futures and foresight university, and the World Futures Forum which works with the United Nations to solve the worlds greatest challenges. Matthew is an in demand international keynote, acclaimed university lecturer and mentor, and host of the hit Fanatical Futurist podcast.

A rare talent in his past Matthew helped build and run several multi-billion dollar business units for Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, and his ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77+ governments, and many of the world's most respected brands including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Disney, Dow, EY, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, and many others. He was also the only futurist invited to talk at the UN COP28 held in Dubai alongside world leaders.

Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.