Jane Edwards
SpaceX has delayed the scheduled first test launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket from December to January, Spaceflight Now reported Tuesday.
The company expects to field the rocket to its launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for the static fire test of the space vehicle’s 27 Merlin 1D engines in December.
Reconfiguration work on the base of SpaceX’s erector tower and mobile strongback transporter has begun this week at launch pad 39A in preparation for the engines’ static fire test.
Falcon Heavy is a 299-foot-long rocket that weighs over 3.1 million pounds loaded with liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants and has three modified first-stage boosters that will work to provide the rocket with approximately 5.1 million pounds of thrust.
The company is scheduled to launch its Dragon spacecraft by Dec. 8 from a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to deliver 4,800 pounds of crew supplies and other experiments to the International Space Station.
SpaceX is also set to deploy into orbit the fourth batch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites on Dec. 22 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard its pre-flown Falcon 9 rocket.
