Photos: Elon Musk Reveals Falcon Heavy Ahead Of January Launch

After months of delays and changing launch dates, the first photos of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy were made public Wednesday morning after Elon Musk tweeted and posted to Instagram three images of the rocket at the Kennedy Space Center.

One thing is apparent from the photos, the rocket, that’s actually made up of three Falcon 9 rockets, is massive. It looks almost exactly like the artist renderings that were released before any actual photos of the rocket were.

The only difference between the two is that the illustrations of the rocket also show the payload at the top and the current photos of the rocket shows it with no payload.

Musk tweeted earlier this month that when the Falcon Heavy does launch, scheduled for January, it will have a Payload containing his “midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity.” If the payload makes it to its destination, Mars orbit, it will be there for “a billion years or so,” Musk added. Then he said the rocket would launch in January, and echoed himself saying it would be exciting, “One way or another.”

Musk also tweeted a photo of what looks like one-third of the base of the rocket to help give his followers some perspective on how big the rocket is compared to people.

The rocket was originally scheduled to launch sometime in November. It was even on the Kennedy Space Center’s website as an event. Since then that event has moved several times, it was pushed to December and then to 2018. As of Wednesday, the launch event on the KSC website it was expected “NET” or “no earlier than” January 2018.

The rocket is expected to launch from Launch Pad 39A that SpaceX has worked with NASA to upgrade to take the power of the Falcon Heavy. The launch pad the same historic pad where Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin launched from in 1969. The maximum thrust of the Heavy is anticipated to be 5.1 million pounds, and Musk says it on the first mission it will run at 92 percent.

All three of the first stage rockets, that are clearly visible in the photos Musk tweeted, are expected to make a return back to Earth after the launch. Landing attempts will be made, two on land at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and one on the SpaceX droneship named “Of Course I Still Love You” that is expected to be in the Atlantic Ocean to collect the first stage.

Whether or not visitors to the center will be allowed to view the rocket launch is unclear and will be determined by NASA and the United States Air Force.