The World’s Most Powerful Rocket

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eng.2019.08.01

mission the Falcon Heavy released 24 satellites into three different orbits, a much more complex maneuver than those it performed in its first two missions [7].
Although the Falcon Heavy delivered its cargoes on these missions, retrieving all of the reusable components of the rocket has proved challenging. On two of the flights, the central core booster failed to land on the recovery ship and the fairings fell into the sea

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Engineering j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / e n g instead of into the net that was supposed to catch them. Even though the central core did set down on the recovery ship during the second mission, it fell overboard during the return to port and sank [8].
Reusability comes with a cost, however, said Alton Romig, Jr., Executive Officer of the US National Academy of Engineering in Washington, DC, and former Vice President and General Manager of the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company Advanced Development Programs (better known as the Skunk Works Ò ). Reusability reduces the lift capacity of the rocket because the boosters have to save some of their fuel to return to Earth. ''A trade-off decision has to be made between the cost savings of reusability and additional useful payload that could be placed in orbit," he said.
Nonetheless, said Forczyk, ''The reusability is ground-breaking, and it should decrease launch costs overall." SpaceX's current list price of $90 million USD per launch attracted clients such as the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA, the US Air Force, and the Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat) for its two 2019 missions. At least four more launches are currently planned, although the next one may not occur for more than a year [9].
That companies such as SpaceX are performing a greater share of rocket launches is a positive development, Romig said, because it will help hold down costs. Using private companies to deliver payloads into low Earth orbit ''ought to be cheaper in the long run" than relying upon government-sponsored entities, he said.
Although Musk initially proposed using the Falcon Heavy to carry astronauts around the Moon, whether the rocket will contribute to space missions, as opposed to just lifting cargoes into orbit, remains uncertain. It currently is not equipped for a crew and therefore could not ferry astronauts to the International Space Station or the Gateway that NASA plans to put into orbit around the Moon, Forczyk said. But with the Delta IV rocket close to being retired and other potential challengers still in development, the Falcon Heavy has the large payload market mostly to itself, she said. At the earliest, Blue Origin, the spacecraft company headquartered in Kent, Washington, USA, and started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, will launch its New Glenn rocket in 2021 [10]. And the Chinese Long March 9 rocket, which will carry more than twice the payload of the Falcon Heavy, is not expected to start flights for more than 10 years [11]. Forczyk said the biggest competitive threat could come from SpaceX itself, which is developing a larger, two-stage prototype, the Super Heavy rocket and Starship spacecraft, which could make the Falcon Heavy obsolete [12].