SpaceX Founder Tweets Potential Timeline

The Falcon Heavy could have its first flight in as little as three months, according to a Tweet from SpaceX Founder Elon Musk.

In a Tweet posted June 8 responding to one of his Twitter followers, Musk said "All Falcon Heavy cores should be at the cape in two to three months, so launch should happen a month after that.

The Falcon Heavy combines three Falcon 9 boosters into one that is expected to be capable of lofting 119,000 pounds into orbit. All three segments of the Falcon Heavy booster are intended to be recoverable. While that's impressive, it's only about a third of what NASA's Saturn V booster carried when it sent men on their way to the Moon.

Musk hopes to mount a privately-funded trip to orbit the moon in 2018.

But Business Insider reports that SpaceX has a history of missing such aggressive deadlines. The Falcon Heavy was supposed to have flown in March, but that timeline was pushed back after the launch pad accident in September that destroyed a communications satellite.

Musk openly admits his plans are ambitious. After the first launch of a space-proven booster in March, Musk said that the payload for the first Falcon Heavy flight will probably be "something really silly" given the high-risk nature of the mission.

Such as? Well, Musk isn't saying. But on a test flight of a Dragon spacecraft in December, 2010, the cargo was a wheel of cheese.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.spacex.com