Sometimes, even parents have to admit when their kids are about to fail.

And Elon Musk, proud father of tomorrow’s SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch, is getting ready for the rocket to explode.

Tomorrow marks a historic day in space travel. Aerospace manufacturer, SpaceX, is set to launch the world’s most powerful rocket into space. It does this along with a first-of-its-kind payload: a genuine Tesla Roadster, driven by a dummy in one of the company’s much-publicised new SpaceX jumpsuits.

It’s safe to say there’s a lot riding on it, and one very important party has admitted he has his doubts. Tesla CEO and founder (not to mention the actual owner of the Cherry-red Tesla roadster in question), Elon Musk, isn’t convinced the launch is going to go to plan.

In fact, he’s convinced it’s going to blow up.

Musk has expressed his doubts over the fate of this monumental space launch ever since its announcement in 2011. He has, in fact, stated at various times that it might very well explode, either on the ground or in mid-air.

The Launch

SpaceX’s mission to launch a gargantuan 230-foot tall rocket hinges on a design that incorporates three sets of smaller rocket components. The company’s Falcon 9 rocket gets its thrust from nine individual cone-shaped engines, which are attached to a reusable booster unit. These boosters push the rocket into the sky, before detaching and returning to earth, where they will be restored for later reuse.

The Falcon Heavy, significantly bigger than a Falcon 9, uses three of these already-massive boosters (or cores) in a triple-core configuration.

And, now that the Falcon Heavy is supposedly ready for launch, its this precise rocket power that’s got Musk questioning it ahead of launch.

Senior Space Editor at Ars Technica, Eric Berger, Tweeted yesterday: “Just spoke to an ebullient Elon Musk at the launch pad. In his heart, he feels like there’s a 67 percent chance of success. In his head, it’s probably closer to 50-50.”

Musk, who has every reason to want this launch to go well, has been honest about his concerns about a Mars launch failure. He’s characterized the launch as “high-risk”, and qualified the mission into space, saying “Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent.”

While he hasn’t been forthcoming with the science behind his concerns, there’s an implication that Musk’s concerns are with the fuel content of the rocket, on launch day. Musk, discussing the launch at a press conference earlier this year, said: “Twenty-seven engines are firing simultaneously: that’s a lot of engines. It should really be called the Falcon-27.”

Still, the captivating entrepreneur remains positive, in spite of his doubts about a Falcon Heavy failure. He added a guarantee the Falcon Heavy launch would be “exciting, one way or another”.

The Payload

Onboard tomorrow’s shuttle, SpaceX will be including the following:

Elon Musk’s 2008 Midnight-Cherry-Red Tesla Roadster

One dummy driver

One of SpaceX’s specially designed pressurized space suits

The car, while an impressive piece of machinery, was still subject to the same regulations as any other payload destined for outer space. This means it had to pass muster with the Federal Aviation Administration. The institution granted SpaceX permission to carry the car as a payload on Friday, marking off one of the last milestones in the launch process.

The latter item has been the subject of a lot of news coverage since Musk posted the first images of it on Instagram in 2017. The sleek, futuristic space suits made waves when their images hit social media, as a first glimpse into SpaceX’s designs for its future launches of people into space.

Strapped onto a dummy driver, the suit will serve more of a cosmetic function than anything else, but it makes for a thoughtful addition to the payload. In the event of a Mars launch failure, these would make for very theatrical expenses to add to the overall cost.

Running Its Course

The ship being launched tomorrow is being designed to, one day, possibly carry human payloads to the moon and even to Mars. For now, tomorrow’s launch is set to orbit the nearby Sun in an ellipse, a course which will actually bring it near to the red planet.

Whether we see a Mars launch failure or a world first for space travel has yet to be seen, but with a payload comprised of a Tesla Roadster and SpaceX’s unique new spacesuit, it’s set to be a one-of-a-kind trip.

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy is scheduled to launch on February 6th, between 1:30 PM and 4:30 PM at Cape Canaveral Kennedy Space Center.