Elon Musk’s SpaceX is set to launch the world’s most powerful rocket TOMORROW: Firm prepares for dramatic first Falcon Heavy flight and confirms it will try to land all three of the craft’s reusable cores

SpaceX is preparing to launch the world’s most powerful rocket for the first time tomorrow. 

At 1:30pm ET (6:30pm GMT), the ‘monster’ Falcon Heavy rocket will blast off from the same pad in Florida that hoisted men to the moon a half-century ago.

With more than 5 million pounds of liftoff thrust – equivalent to 18 747s jetliners – the Heavy will be capable of lifting supersize satellites into orbit and sending spacecraft to the moon, Mars and beyond.     

SpaceX founder Elon Musk, 46, today confirmed that the vehicle’s main module will carry his 2008 cherry red Tesla Roadster on a journey to the orbit of Mars 140 million miles (225 million kilometres) away.

He also said that three reusable cores will separate from the main module after launch and return to Earth.

But the launch is high-risk. According to Musk, there is a ‘real good chance that vehicle does not make it.’

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In a post to Instagram on Monday morning, the billionaire shared a picture of the electric sports car strapped into the rocket, with a mannequin wearing a spacesuit sat in the driver’s seat.

Alongside the picture he wrote ‘Starman in Red Roadster’, a reference to the firm’s plan to play David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ from the car’s speakers during launch.

Musk also tweeted: ‘Falcon Heavy remains go for launch at 1:30pm on Tuesday. Florida time.’ 

The Falcon Heavy won’t surpass NASA’s Saturn V moon rocket, still all-time king of the launch circuit. It won’t even approach the liftoff might of NASA’s space shuttles. 

But when it departs on its first test flight, the Heavy with its two boosters and 27 engines will be the most powerful working rocket out there today, by a factor of two.

‘I can’t wait to see it fly and to see it fly again and again,’ said the Southwest Research Institute’s Alan Stern.

He’s the lead scientist for NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft which made an unprecedented flyby of Pluto and is now headed to an even smaller, icy world on the fringes of the solar system.

Cape Canaveral hasn’t seen this kind of rocket mania since the last space shuttle flight in 2011. 

Huge crowds are expected for the afternoon launch from Kennedy Space Center. Visitor center tickets for the best up-close viewing, called ‘Feel the Heat’ and ‘Closest Package,’ sold out quickly.

‘When you’re talking about what would be the biggest and largest operational launch vehicle in the world, that adds another dimension of excitement,’ said Phil Larson, an assistant dean at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who used to work for SpaceX and the Obama administration.

The Heavy is capable of delivering, in one fell swoop, 140,660 pounds (63,800 kilograms) of cargo to low-Earth orbit, nearly 60,000 pounds (26,700 kilograms) to high-Earth orbit, 37,000 pounds (16,800 kilograms) to Mars, or 7,700 pounds (3,500 kilograms) to Pluto. 

Tomorrow’s test will mark the first time SpaceX has flown its new, high-capacity rocket, which will allow the firm to send nearly far more payload into orbit than the average launch.

It follows months of delays and setbacks, with the company targeting an unprecedented level of reusability as part of its long-term plan to make commercial rocket flights cheaper.

SpaceX had previously said it planned to launch the Falcon Heavy a week after the rocket’s first successful static test fire, which took place on January 24 after it was delayed by last week’s US government shutdown. 

The test marked the first time the huge rocket roared to life, with all 27 of its Merlin engines fired up simultaneously at launchpad 39A.

As well as creating huge, billowing clouds of white smoke, the test fired off monstrous booms that could be heard up to three miles away.

‘Falcon Heavy hold-down firing this morning was good. Generated quite a thunderhead of steam. Launching in a week or so,’ Musk tweeted on January 24.

If all goes according to plan on February 6, the Falcon Heavy will lift off and enter Earth’s orbit, at which point two of the craft’s booster rockets will separate off and return to Earth at Cape Canaveral in controlled landings.

The 70-metre- (230-foot) long rocket’s central core will then detach from the main module and begin its own controlled descent back to Earth, landing on the firm’s ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.

The main module will continue its trajectory into ‘deep space’, the billionaire has said, with a destination set for the orbit of Mars 140 million miles (225 million kilometres) away.

According to Musk: ‘Destination is Mars orbit. Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent.’

Musk has said his original cherry red 2008 Tesla Roadster will be strapped into the main module, playing David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ from its speakers.

The launch follows months of delays and build-up to the historic flight, with Musk frequently posting updates across his social media profiles.

On January 5, the billionaire wrote on Instagram: ‘Falcon Heavy now vertical on the former Apollo 11 moon rocket launchpad.

‘At 2,500 tons of thrust, equal to 18 Boeing 747 aircraft at full throttle, it will be the most powerful rocket in the world by a factor of two. Excitement on launch day guaranteed, one way or another.

‘Hold-down test fire next week. Launch end of the month.’ 

The 46-year-old South African, who co-founded PayPal with venture capitalist Peter Thiel, predicts the Falcon Heavy’s payload will stay in deep space for a while.

A photo of its unusual cargo – Musk’s cherry red 2008 Tesla Roadster – was released last month.

Images released by SpaceX show an original Roadster perched on a large cone inside the Falcon Heavy on what appears to be a secure mount to keep it stationary as the rocket makes its maiden flight.

‘Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks. That seemed extremely boring,’ Musk said in December. 

‘Of course, anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel.

‘The payload will be an original Tesla Roadster, playing Space Oddity, on a billion year elliptic Mars orbit.’

The mission marks SpaceX’s most ambitious project to date. 

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, with the aim of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonisation of Mars.

In a Washington, D.C., speech last July the Tesla founder said Falcon Heavy is one of the most difficult and technically complex projects SpaceX has ever undertaken.

‘There’s a lot of risk associated with Falcon Heavy,’ he said during the 2017 International Space Station Research and Development Conference.

‘Real good chance that the vehicle doesn’t make it to orbit. I want to make sure to set expectations accordingly.’ 

Musk has spent the proceeding months building up hype for the historic launch with a series of social media posts.

Last month he posted an image to Twitter of people stoof next to a landed Falcon Heavy rocket to give an idea of the vehicle’s scale.

He tweeted: ‘Falcon Heavy launching from same @NASA pad as the Saturn V Apollo 11 moon rocket. 

‘It was 50% higher thrust with five F-1 engines at 7.5M lb-F. 

‘I love that rocket so much.’

He also confirmed the rocket will have a ‘max thrust at lift-off is 5.1 million pounds or 2300 metric tons,’ adding the first mission will run at 92 per cent capacity.

‘Falcon Heavy to launch next month from Apollo 11 pad at the Cape. 

‘Will have double thrust of next largest rocket. Guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another,’ Musk originally posted.