Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, named for its giant pink granite dome rising from the Llano Uplift, spans the border between Gillespie County and Llano County, south of the Llano River and some 24 km north of Fredericksburg, Texas.
SpaceX has been conducting its East Coast launches from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but they hope to return to their SLC-40 launch site in Cape Canaveral for the Falcon Heavy. SLC-40 is still undergoing repairs, after SpaceXâs last Falcon 9 explosion over a year ago. An alternative launch site, the Kennedy Space Centerâs 39A, is being modified to accommodate the Falcon Heavy.
When the firm SpaceX launches its Falcon Heavy rocket into space late this year, the craft will become the mightiest rocket in the world. Only NASA's Saturn V, which sent Americans to the moon, has ever generated more power. In rockets, the most important measure of power is thrust. Falcon Heavy's 27 individual booster engines together generate 3.8 million pounds of thrustâenough to lift the 3.1-million-pound rocket and its 117,000-pound payload toward low-Earth orbit. The rocket's success is critical for both SpaceX and the U.S. space program: The Air Force has already hired SpaceX and its Falcon Heavy to send two satellites into orbit sometime in 2015.