Falcon Heavy
SpaceX's heavy-lift rocket: three Falcon 9-based cores fire 27 engines together for more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. SpaceX says it can lift the equivalent of a fully loaded 737 jetliner to orbit.
Why it matters
It handles missions that need more lift than a single Falcon 9 while still landing its side boosters for reuse. It flies from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, the former Apollo and Space Shuttle pad.
How the technology works
A center core and two side boosters, each based on a Falcon 9 first stage, light 27 Merlin engines at liftoff. The center core throttles down early; after the side boosters separate and fly back to landing zones at Cape Canaveral, it throttles back up.
A Merlin Vacuum upper stage carries the payload the rest of the way to orbit.