SpaceX’s new rocket will be ready for launch within two years
Updated February 09, 2019 15:18:58A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a Falcon Heavy rocket booster is set to launch to the International Space Station in late 2019.
Key points:SpaceX says it’s set to be the first commercial company to launch from the Space Launch Complex-41 in FloridaSpaceX has already signed a $1.5 billion contract with NASA to send a crew to the stationTwo more flights of the Falcon Heavy will be scheduled in 2020SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy is expected to take off from Florida on a two-stage rocketThe company’s next Falcon Heavy launch, which is expected in early 2020, is set for a liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on a SpaceX rocket with two boosters, according to the company.
SpaceX is also set to test its Falcon Heavy booster for the first time in mid-2020.
It will be the company’s first rocket to launch on a Falcon 9, which has a first stage with a payload fairing.
Spacex plans to launch its Falcon 9 booster on a new booster, the Falcon 9 v1.1.
This new booster will have a larger payload fairings than the existing booster, with the first stage having a payload bay for the International Society for Experimental Propulsion of Spacecraft (ESPCOT) on the backside.
The second stage will have an extended payload bay on the front side.
Both booster rockets are expected to be delivered to the space station at the end of 2020, with an initial landing at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the company says.
The first Falcon 9 launch is expected by 2021.
