The Falcon Heavy is an American super-heavy launch vehicle (LV) with the ability to reuse the first stage and side boosters, designed and manufactured by SpaceX, is one of the largest launch vehicles in the history of the world space rocket along with Saturn-5, N-1, the Space Shuttle system and the "Energy." It belongs to the Falcon family and is based on the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, using its slightly modified first stage as the central stage, as well as two additional modified Falcon 9 first stages as side boosters (the so-called "zero stage").

At the time of the first launch, it was the heaviest, most powerful and heaviest launch vehicle in operation, and was so until the launch of the SLS in 2022. The Falcon Heavy also holds the absolute record for the number of main engines (28, including 27 simultaneously operating) among successfully flying launch vehicles. From an engineering point of view, it is of undoubted interest that if the Falcon Heavy successfully "accumulates statistics of successful launches" - this will mean a refutation of the point of view generally accepted among rocket specialists since the mid-1970s that it is technically impossible to achieve acceptable reliability of a "super-multi-engine" launch vehicle - and, as a result, a revolution in the technical concepts of creating heavy and especially super-heavy launch vehicles.

The first (test) launch of the Falcon Heavy was successfully carried out on February 6, 2018. The first commercial launch was made on April 11, 2019.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced the development of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle at a press conference at the National Press Club ⁱⁿ Washington, D.C., on April 5, 2011. It was originally announced as the date of the first launch in 2013 (from the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base^).

The completion of development and the debut launch of the rocket were repeatedly postponed.

The Falcon Heavy is one of those things that, at first glance, looks simple. Just take the first two stages and use them as hinged accelerators. In fact, no, it is insanely difficult and required a redesign of the central unit and a lot of different equipment. It was really shockingly difficult to switch from a single-block to a three-block rocket.

— Elon Musk, at a press conference after the first reuse of the first stage of a Falcon 9

Following the Falcon 9 crash in June 2015, the first launch of the Falcon Heavy, which was scheduled for later in the year, was reduced in favor of accelerating the return to flight of the Falcon 9. and postponed first to the spring of 2016, and later to the end of 2016. The launch pad for the debut launch was also changed - on the LC-39A of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Work was underway at the launch complex to convert it for Falcon Heavy launches^.

Damage to the SLC-40 launch complex during the Falcon 9 explosion in September 2016 forced SpaceX to accelerate work on the commissioning of the LC-39A complex in order to transfer its launch operations on the East Coast of the United States to it. The completion of work on adapting the launch pad for Falcon Heavy launches was postponed in favor of the earliest possible start of Falcon 9 rocket launches from this launch pad. After the restoration of the SLC-40 complex, which ended in the fall of 2017, the launches of the Falcon 9 were postponed to it, allowing the completion of the preparation of the LC-39A complex for the debut launch of the Falcon Heavy, which was expected in early 2018^.

Although the Falcon Heavy was originally designed to send humans into space, including missions to the Moon and Mars, there are no planned manned flights for February 2018; instead, it is planned to use the launch vehicle to send massive cargo into space, such as heavy artificial satellites and automatic interplanetary stations.

After a successful first launch on February 6, 2018, it became the largest launch vehicle currently in use, twice the payload of the ^{Delta IV Heavy} that can be put into ^{a low reference orbit}. However, this launch vehicle is not the largest in the history of cosmonautics, since the previously used Saturn-5 and ^Energia launch vehicles could carry a payload of up to 141 and 105 tons, respectively (the Soviet ^N-1/N-1F launch vehicle also had an estimated maximum payload of up to 100 tons, but all its launches were unsuccessful, and the system, which is currently undergoing the test stage, which is supposed to launch up to 150 tons). It is planned that in the non-return version, the Falcon Heavy will be able to deliver up to 63.8 to , up to 26.7 tons to , up to 16.8 tons to a departure trajectory to , and up to 3.5 tons to a departure trajectory to (with the latter in orbit at its current position or close to it). Provided that both the side boosters and the first stage of the LV return to Falcon Heavy will be able to launch a payload weighing up to about 30 tons; when only the side boosters return to Earth, the maximum payload mass launched by the Falcon Heavy on the GPO will increase to 16

SpaceX claims that the cost of a single launch is $90 million, while the cost of launching the Delta IV Heavy is approximately $435 million. However, the cost of Falcon Heavy launches will depend very significantly on the choice of their configuration - with the return of the side boosters and the first stage, with the return of only the side boosters, or in a completely non-returnable version.

The announced cost of the launch of the Falcon Heavy has changed several times. In 2011, it amounted to $80-125 million.  In 2012, the cost of the launch was $83 million. with a payload of up to 6.4 tons per GPO and USD 128 million. for a load of more than 6.4 tonnes per GPO, in 2013 the cost was indicated as USD 77.1 million and USD 135 million, respectively. Since 2014, the company's website has only indicated the cost of launching with a payload of up to 6.4 tons per GPO, which then amounted to $ 85 million, increasing to $ 90 million. in 2015 (for satellites weighing up to 8 tons per GPO). In February 2018, Elon Musk reported that the cost of launching the consumable version of the Falcon Heavy was $¹⁵⁰ million, and the cost of the version where only the center of the rocket was spent was $⁹⁵ million.

In May 2012, the first commercial contract was signed with Intelsat for the launch of its communications satellite by the Falcon ^{Heavy launch} vehicle. Due to delays in the development of the rocket, the launch of the Intelsat 35e satellite was subsequently moved to the Falcon 9 launch ^vehicle.

In December 2012, the U.S. Air Force signed a contract with SpaceX to launch spacecraft under the Department of Defense's STP-2 program using the Falcon Heavy. ^{The mission} involves the insertion of two primary vehicles and many secondary vehicles into different orbits and will be used as part of the launch vehicle certification for more important government defense orders.

In July 2014, Inmarsat signed an agreement to launch 3 of its satellites with a Falcon Heavy rocket. Due to delays, in December 2016, the launch of one of these satellites was given to SpaceX's competitor, Arianespace, for launch on an Ariane 5 launch ^vehicle. Another satellite, Inmarsat-5 F4, was launched by a Falcon 9 rocket.

In early 2015, ViaSat ^{signed an} agreement to launch the ViaSat-2 satellite with the Falcon Heavy, but in February 2016 the company decided to move the launch of this satellite to the Ariane 5 rocket in order to stay within the contractual schedule. However, the contract with SpaceX was retained to launch one of the three next-generation ViaSat-3 satellites in 2019–2020, with the option to launch ^{another one.}

In April 2015, a contract was signed with ArabSat (Arab Satellite Communications Organization) for the launch of the Arabsat-6A ^satellite.

In April 2016, SpaceX announced plans to launch a Red Dragon mission using the Falcon Heavy to demonstrate technology for a controlled jet landing on the surface of Mars^. Initially, the launch was scheduled for 2018, later it was postponed to 2020. However, in mid-July 2017, Elon Musk announced at the ISSR&D conference in Washington that SpaceX was abandoning the Red Dragon project due to the fact that the next versions of Dragon spacecraft would have a parachute landing system, and the unmanned version of the Dragon spacecraft would not have SuperDraco ^{engines at all}

On February 27, 2017, SpaceX announced a flight plan for the Dragon V2 manned spacecraft with two private passengers with a flyby of the Moon and return to Earth. The launch was scheduled for late 2018 by a Falcon ^{Heavy launch} vehicle. However, in February 2018, SpaceX abandoned the certification of the Falcon Heavy for manned flights in favor of the reusable BFR system. If the development of the BFR is delayed, then SpaceX will return to the original plan using the Falcon Heavy. In any case, this decision means that a private manned flyby of the Moon has been postponed for ^{several years.}

In July 2017, the results of the open competition for the US Air Force mission STP-3 (Space Test Program) became known, in which the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle from SpaceX and the Atlas V 551 launch vehicle from the United Launch Alliance took part. The contract is worth $191 million. went to ULA.

In June 2018, SpaceX won the first tender for the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle - for the launch of the classified AFSPC-52 mission for the US Air Force at the end of 2020. The contract was worth $^{130 million.}

In March 2019, the company received a contract from the Air Force to launch the AFSPC-44 mission, which involves the launch of at least two devices into a circular geosynchronous orbit with an inclination of 5°. The launch is expected in late 2020 or early 2021.

In March 2020, NASA announced the signing of a contract with SpaceX as part of the Gateway Logistics Services program to supply the future lunar orbital station. The contract provides for at least two missions during which the Dragon XL cargo spacecraft will be launched into translunar orbit by a Falcon ^{Heavy launch} vehicle.

In April 2021, Astrobotic Technology selected the Falcon Heavy to launch its Griffin lunar lander, which will deliver the VIPER lunar rover to the lunar surface under a NASA contract. Initially, the launch of the rover, designed to search for water ice in craters near the South Pole of the Moon, was scheduled for November 2023^. In July 2022, it became known that NASA had decided to postpone the launch of VIPER to November 2024 due to the need to conduct additional tests of the Griffin lander.

The Falcon Heavy consists of a reinforced modification of the Falcon 9 first stage as the central block (first stage), two additional Falcon 9 first stages as side boosters (the so-called "zero stage") and a second stage.

Two boosters based on the first stage of the Falcon 9 are fixed on the sides of the first stage of the launch vehicle. A composite protective cone is placed on top of the accelerators. Each booster has 9 Merlin 1D liquid-propellant rocket engines arranged in an Octaweb pattern, with one central engine and the other eight arranged around it.

The first stage of the Falcon Heavy is a structurally reinforced central block based on the first stage of the Falcon 9 FT launch vehicle, modified to mount two side boosters. It is equipped with nine Merlin 1D liquid-propellant rocket engines. On top there is a transfer compartment that accommodates the second stage engine and is equipped with stage undocking mechanisms.

A total of 27 Merlin 1D engines (central block and side boosters) produce a thrust of 22,819 kN at sea level and 24,681 kN ^{in vacuum}.

The Falcon Heavy, like the Falcon 9, is equipped with elements of a reusable system for controlled return and soft landing of both the center block and the side boosters. The return of the stages reduces the maximum payload of the launch vehicle. Due to the fact that the first stage of the Falcon Heavy will have a much higher speed and be much farther from the launch pad when undocked from the second stage, compared to the first stage of the Falcon 9, the need to return it to the landing site will entail a significant reduction in the mass of the injected load. Therefore, in high-energy launches into geostationary transfer orbit, the first stage of the Falcon Heavy will land on a floating platform. Side boosters, in contrast, will have the ability to return to the launch site and land on the ground in the vast majority ^{of launch} scenarios. Two more ^{landing pads} are planned to land the Falcon Heavy side boosters in Landing Area 1.

Initially, it was planned to be able to install a unique cross-fuel system on the Falcon Heavy, allowing the engines of the central block to use fuel from the side boosters in the first minutes after launch. This would make it possible to store more fuel in the central block for longer operation after the separation of the side boosters, and, as a result, increase the maximum mass of the payload to be launched^. Subsequently, the priority of these works was reduced due to the reluctance to further complicate the design, as well as due to the lack of market demand for such a heavy payload. The development of this system continues, its implementation is possible in the future. At the initial stage, a scheme will be used in which, immediately after the launch of the launch vehicle, the thrust of the engines of the central section will be reduced as much as possible to save fuel. After the separation of the side boosters, the engines of the first stage will be turned back to full thrust^. A similar scheme is used by the Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle.

The second stage of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle is similar to that used on the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and is powered by a single Merlin 1D Vacuum engine with a nominal operating time of 397 seconds and a maximum thrust in the void of 934 kN. The design of the engine allows it to be fired repeatedly during the flight^.

• Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA) - LC-39A; leased from NASA. Previously, the launch complex was used to launch Saturn-5 rockets and the Space Shuttle system. Currently, the launch complex is used for launches of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy and Dragon 2
• Vandenberg Air Force Base (California, USA) - SLC-4E; it is leased from the United States Air Force. Previously, the launch complex was used to launch Titan-3 and Titan-4 rockets. It is currently used for Falcon 9 launches and is being upgraded for Falcon Heavy launches.

In accordance with the announced strategy for the return and reuse of the first stage of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, SpaceX has entered into a lease for the use and conversion of 2 sites on the East and West coasts of ^{the United States}.

• Cape Canaveral Air Force Base - Landing Zone 1 (former LC-13 launch complex); it is leased from the United States Air Force.
• Vandenberg Air Force Base - SLC-4W Launch Complex; it is leased from the United States Air Force.

These launch complexes are equipped with platforms for controlled landing of both the Falcon Heavy side boosters and the first stage of this launch vehicle.

In addition, SpaceX owns floating platforms specially made for the landing of the first stage of the Falcon 9, which are also used to land the central block (first stage) of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle.

In March 2017, it was announced that the first two stages of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, returned from previous launches, would be reused as side boosters during the first launch of the launch vehicle. During the debut flight, it was planned to return the side boosters to the launch site and land them at Landing Zone 1, while the central block (first stage) would land on the floating platform Of Course I Still ^{Love You.}

The possibility was also considered that during the debut launch, tests would be carried out to return the second stage of the launch vehicle

In early April 2017, SpaceX's Texas test facility installed the first side booster for the Falcon Heavy's debut launch, a refurbished and modified B1023 first stage that landed on a floating platform after the launch of the Thaicom 8 satellite in May 2016^.

At the end of April, the new B1033 ^central unit took its place on the test bench. On May 9, 2017, SpaceX announced that it had successfully burned this stage.The second side booster for the first launch was the B1025 stage, which returned to the landing site after the launch of SpaceX's CRS-9 in July 2016^.

On December 1, Elon Musk announced that his personal electric car, the Tesla Roadster, would be used as the payload for the first launch of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, which was planned to be put into orbit in the direction of Mars^. Photographs of the car inside the rocket's payload fairing later became ^available.

On December 20, photographs of the launch vehicle assembled in the hangar of the LC-39A launch complex at the Kennedy Space Center were ^released.

December 28 The Falcon Heavy was first installed on the LC-39A ^{launch pad,} and on January 24, 2018, after several weeks of delays, one of which was due to a U.S. government shutdown, a 12-second test burn of all 27 Merlin 1D engines was performed.

The first test launch of the Falcon Heavy was successfully carried out on February 6, 2018 at 20:45 UTC from the LC-39A launch pad. After undocking, the two side boosters successfully landed at the landing sites at Cape Canaveral. Landing of the central block on the floating platform was unsuccessful; before landing, the stage failed to ignite the fuel of the engines, as the pyrophoric mixture of triethylaluminium and triethylborane (TEA-TEB) used as ignition fluid ran out, two of the three engines did not start for the landing impulse and the stage fell about 100 meters from the floating platform, crashing into the water at a speed of about 130 m/s and damaging the two engines of the platform.

The company did not plan to relaunch the central unit and boosters used in the test flight. The side thrusters were Block 4 compliant, and the central one was Block 3. At the moment, SpaceX intends to reuse only the final version of Block 5; the next launch of the Falcon Heavy will be carried out on three stages of Block 5. At a subsequent conference, Elon Musk stated that the side boosters were in good condition and could be flown again, and he was pleased that the titanium lattice rudders, which are ^{very expensive to} produce, had returned with them.

8.5 minutes after the launch of the launch vehicle, the second stage launched a Tesla Roadster electric car with a mannequin named Starman inside, dressed in a SpaceX space suit, into Earth orbit.

At the 29th minute of the flight, the second, 30-second ignition of the stage raised the orbit to 180 × 6951 km, inclination 29°.

The third firing of the second stage engine was performed 6 hours after launch, sending the payload stage into a heliocentric orbit with a perihelion of 0.99 AU and an aphelion of 1.71 AU, with a maximum distance from the Sun of about 255 million km, slightly beyond the orbit of ^Mars (the continued operation of the second stage was intended to demonstrate the Falcon Heavy's ability to launch satellites directly into geostationary orbit.

At first, there was an error in calculating the orbital parameters, but after a while, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics clarified the orbit parameters and confirmed that it coincided with the previously planned one, and that the Tesla Roadster was not on its journey to the asteroid belt.

Along with the electric car, the Arch 5D data carrier of the Arch Mission Foundation was delivered into orbit, with a collection of novels in the Foundation series by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, highly resistant to the harsh conditions of outer space (it briefly withstands temperatures up to +1000 °C), the longest storage object ever created by humans - at +190 °C, its shelf life is 13.8 billion Years; At normal room temperature, data can be stored almost indefinitely. On a disc made of specially structured quartz glass, images and texts (data are encoded digitally) are engraved with a femtosecond laser.

A plate depicting the SpaceX logo placed on the payload adapter bears the names of more than 6,000 ^{of the} company's employees.