SpaceX launches a Falcon Heavy rocket ahead of Tuesday's launch (photo)

The world’s most powerful operational rocket is at the launch pad ahead of a planned take-off on Tuesday morning (November 1).

SpaceX rolled her Falcon Heavy The rocket launches to launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday (October 31). If all goes according to plan, the car will take off on Tuesday (November 1) at 9:41 a.m. EDT (1341 GMT), sending a handful of payloads aloft. US Space Force On a mission called USSF-44.

“Falcon Heavy rolls downhill ahead of tomorrow’s target launch of USSF-44 mission; weather is 90% favorable for takeoff,” SpaceX said via Twitter (Opens in a new tab) On Monday, in a post he posted a photo of a large rocket making a trip to the platform.

Falcon Heavy going vertical at launch complex 39A pic.twitter.com/4rOUg5q2tYNovember 1, 2022

Falcon Heavy made the trip to the platform on his side. SpaceX raised the rocket to a vertical position later on Monday, after sunset, as the company Appeared in another tweet (Opens in a new tab).

Falcon Heavy consists of three mods, strapped together Falcon 9 early stages. A second stage bearing a load is located above the central booster.

Like the Falcon 9, the first stages of the Falcon Heavy are designed to land vertically after takeoff and for future reuse. But in the USSF-44, only the two external boosters will return to Earth in one piece. The central booster will dive into the sea, where its thruster is exploited by the challenging mission, which will move its payloads toward an orbit far from Earth.

The USSF-44 will be the fourth Falcon Heavy mission ever and the first since June 2019. The missile has a lot of flights in its statement. Dry spell is primarily due to Delays in satellite delivery to customers.

Falcon Heavy has been in Pad 39A before: SpaceX launched the rocket last week to Fixed fire actiona routine test that ignites the first stage engines for a brief period while the car remains stationary on the ground.

Stationary firing without payloads USSF-44 took place above the missile. After the test, SpaceX returned the rocket to the hangar to integrate satellites, about which little is known. (The main payload, a spacecraft called USSF-44, is classified.)

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 2AM ET on November 1, to clarify that SpaceX has raised the Falcon Heavy to portrait mode on the plate.

Mike Wall is the author of “Abroad (Opens in a new tab)Book (Great Grand Publishing House, 2018; illustrated by Carl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrials. Follow him on Twitter Tweet embed (Opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter Tweet embed (Opens in a new tab) or on Facebook (Opens in a new tab).