SpaceX has managed to demonstrate in a very short time that human beings have much more advanced technology in their hands than we can imagine. Such is the case that, among the milestones they have set out to achieve, perhaps one of the most important took place on February 6 when they literally managed to successfully launch the world's most powerful active rocket.
In this sense, it could be said that literally the company is at that point where it is perfectly capable so that, from now on, all its movements mark a before and after within the space race of human beings. You have proof of what I say in the short-term plans of SpaceX, in which, if everything goes well, they could return to enter history up to three more times during 2018.
Once it has been possible to show the world that the new Falcon Heavy works perfectly, remember that during its launch even YouTube itself commented that it had managed to be the second most followed streaming in the history of the platform, now is the time to ask its own Elon Musk about the future of the company and what do they hope to achieve during this same 2018.
Elon Musk did not hesitate for a moment to talk about the projects that are being carried out at SpaceX
As usual, the CEO of SpaceX did not hold his tongue and commented that the company today is very focused on further develop the Falcon Heavy to take advantage of its full capacity when it comes to launching very heavy satellites at a much cheaper price.
At this point, it was Elon Musk himself who set his sights on his main competitor, the Delta IV Heavy Alliance, manufactured and operated by the United Launch Alliance, the same as today. can carry half the total weight in terms of the Falcon Heavy payload and where each of the operations where it is necessary has a much higher price.
In his own words Elon Musk:
The Falcon Heavy can launch twice the load of any other rocket in the world ... It can launch things directly to Pluto and beyond, no need to stop.
SpaceX will demonstrate that it can get astronauts to the International Space Station while continuing to develop its BFR
Looking forward to the next months of 2018 Falcon Heavy is expected to take part in two more missions, one where the Arabsat 6A communications satellite will be put into orbit as well as the launch of the Spaces Test Program 2 satellite for the United States Air Force.
Although these are the confirmed missions, the truth is that the company will continue to work on several of its promises, among them being able to send human crew to space, something for which it is investing and working on the Dragon 2 capsule, same in which in the short term it will be possible to send the first tourists to the Moon on a trip that would last a week, enough time to go to the Moon and return to Earth as predicted by the company.
Another very important milestone for this year 2018 is part of the intention by SpaceX to demonstrate that the Falcon9, together with the Dragon capsule, is fully capable of take astronauts to the International Space Station. At the moment they are working on the design and construction of a boat specialized in recovering the capsule after landing.
The development of the BFR will be critical to the future of SpaceX
Finally we can't stop talking about BFR o Big Fucking Rocket, a concept that engineers from the North American company are already working on and that once in production should be in charge of taking human beings to Mars. In the words of Elon Musk:
We'll see how the development of the BFR goes, if it takes longer than expected, then we'll go back to the idea of sending a Crew Dragon on the Falcon Heavy around the Moon, and potentially doing other things with the crew on Falcon Heavy.