Lofting Aspirations: SpaceX Plans to Launch World's Most Powerful Rocket in 2013

Come 2013, the burliest rocket in the world may belong not to NASA, Boeing or any of the other traditional heavy-hitters in the aerospace field. It will belong to a relative newcomer, if start-up spaceflight firm SpaceX has its way.

PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, who heads up the Hawthorne, Calif., company, announced at an April 5 news conference that SpaceX is building a new rocket, called Falcon Heavy, with enough thrust to lift 53,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit. The heavy-lift rockets currently in use around the world, such as NASA's soon-to-be-retired space shuttle; the Delta 4, operated by Boeing and Lockheed Martin's United Launch Alliance; and the European Space Agency's Ariane 5 top out at a payload capacity of around 20,000 to 25,000 kilograms. (NASA's Saturn 5 booster of the Apollo era, with an orbital payload capacity of 118,000 kilograms, was far more powerful than anything in existence today.)