Will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two

Only Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit

Powerful enough to blast crew to the moon or even Mars

Will be used to take paying astronaut around the moon in early missions

It is set to be one of the biggest rockets in history, and could blast off in just three months, Elon Musk has claimed.

The SpaceX founder took to Twitter to reveal the aggressive timeline for its new megarocket, which will combine three rockets to form the 'Dragon Heavy'.

ADVERTISEMENT

'All Falcon Heavy cores should be at the Cape in two to three months, so launch should happen a month after that,' he tweeted.

Scroll down for video

The SpaceX founder took to Twitter to reveal the aggressive timeline for its new megarocket, which will combine three rockets to form the 'Dragon Heavy'.

THE FALCON HEAVY Height: 70 meters (229.6 feet) Stages: 2 Boosters: 2 Cores: 3 Engines: 27 Payload to LEO: 63,800kg (140,660 lb) Payload to Mars: 16,800kg (37,040 lb) Total width: 12.2m (39.9 ft) Mass: 1,420,788kg (3,125,735 lb) Total thrust at lift-off: 22,819 kilonewtons (5.13 million pounds)

SpaceX boasts 'When Falcon Heavy lifts off in 2017, it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two.'

It will be able to lift into orbit over 54 metric tons (119,000 lb), a mass equivalent to a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel, according to SpaceX's figures.

'Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost,' SpaceX says.

Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft.

Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit, Elon Musk's space firm claims.

Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars.

There are already plans to use it to send an unmanned Dragon capsule to the red planet.

Click here to resize this module

SpaceX has previously revealed how their Falcon Heavy rocket will work. A video shows it lifting off (shown) from a launch pad in Florida. Its side boosters and core then land themselves back at the pad. SpaceX say reusability is key to keeping launch costs down. The Falcon Heavy will be used to take astronauts to the moon and Mars

Earlier this month SpaceX has fired one of the three boosters that will form its 'megarocket', called Falcon Heavy.

The static fire test in McGregor, TX last week is a major step towards bringing the ‘world’s most powerful rocket’ a step closer to its maiden launch.

Elon Musk took to Twitter to hail the success, saying 'Falcon Heavy is this times three. One way or another, launch is guaranteed to be exciting ...'

Musk also explained why so much steam is visible, saying

MUSK'S PRIVATE MOON MISSION Elon Musk's SpaceX will launch a crewed mission beyond the moon for two private paying customers in 2018, using the Dragon Heavy, it has been revealed. It will be the first time in 45 years humans have been in deep space, said the company, promising its mission will go 'faster and further' than any humans before them. The week-long mission was originally due to take place some time in late 2018 and will 'skim the surface of the moon' then venture into deep space before returning to Earth, Musk revealed. The identity of the customers and how much they paid has been kept secret. When completed, the Falcon Heavy will be equipped with three cores, making for a total of 27 Merlin engines to generate 5.13 million pounds of thrust at lift-off. SpaceX expects the mission to take place some time in late 2018, after it sends a crewed NASA Dragon craft to the International Space Station. 'We have been approached by private individuals,' said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, after announcing the mission by tweeting 'fly me to the moon... ok'. 'This is a private mission with paying customers, who have placed significant deposits,' Musk said, but added that they have so far not authorized the company to reveal their names. Musk said the individuals know each other and are 'very serious' about the flight 'This is a really exciting thing that's happened,' Musk told reporters.

'Btw, that cloud is almost entirely steam, including dark parts (like a storm).'

ADVERTISEMENT

The firm has teased the megarocket since 2011, but after several delays, CEO Elon Musk said earlier this year that it will finally be ready for lift-off late this summer.

New footage shared on Twitter suggests SpaceX is now on track for the debut of its highly-anticipated rocket soon.

‘First static fire test of a Falcon Heavy center core completed at our McGregor, TX rocket development facility last week,’ SpaceX tweeted.

The 18-second clip shows billows of white and black smoke pouring out from below.

When completed, the Falcon Heavy will be equipped with three cores, making for a total of 27 Merlin engines to generate 5.13 million pounds of thrust at lift-off.

According to SpaceX, it will be able to carry more than 140,000 pounds of payload to low-Earth orbit, making it the ‘most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two.’

The Falcon Heavy rocket was originally slated to fly in 2013, but faced several challenges that forced the firm to push back the date of its debut.

Now, it’s expected to fly late this summer, Musk said in a conference following the successful launch of a re-used Falcon 9 rocket in March, revealing the difficulties they’d faced along the way.

‘At first it sounded easy. We'll just take two first stages and use them as strap-on boosters,’ Musk said.

'It was actually shockingly difficult to go from single core to a triple-core vehicle.'

Earlier this year, Musk revealed SpaceX will send two private paying customers beyond the moon in 2018.

The mission will use one of SpaceX's Dragon capsules, which will be modified to allow communications in deep space, launched atop a Falcon Heavy rocket.

THE REUSABLE ROCKET RACE SpaceX made history in March when it achieved the first-ever reuse of an orbital-class booster, which CEO Elon Musk had deemed ‘a huge revolution for spaceflight’ Reusable rockets would cut costs and waste in the space industry, which currently loses millions of dollars in jettisoned machinery after each launch. Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency are also developing similar technology and are in testing stages. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com and owner of The Washington Post newspaper, said last month that Blue Origin expects to begin crewed test flights of the New Shepard, the company's flagship rocket, next year and begin flying paying passengers as early as 2018. The Indian space agency also hopes to develop its own frugal shuttle, as it seeks to cash in on a huge and lucrative demand from other countries to send up their satellites, after a successful test launch last month.

Previously, Elon Musk had said he was ‘planning to send Dragon to Mars as soon as 2018.’

ADVERTISEMENT

But, the firm later admitted it won’t make that date, and is instead aiming for 2020.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell revealed the timeline at a press briefing for the company's recent launch from NASA's historic launch pad 39A.

The Dragon Heavy: how it compares

'We were focused on 2018, but we felt like we needed to put more resources and focus more heavily on our crew program and our Falcon Heavy program,' she said.

'So we're looking more in the 2020 timeframe for that.'

Red Dragon is a precursor for SpaceX's ambitious Mars plans, which company founder Elon Musk unveiled at the International Astronautical Congress in Mexico in September.