[SunkenCiv]

BTW, I love this whole thing, but I do get a little tired of hearing how this is the largest rocket since Saturn V — it’s not. The two SRBs for the STS (Shuttle) put out over 5 million pounds, and were needed to make the Shuttle fly — but the Shuttle also had liquid-fueled engines on the orbiter itself (that’s what that huge-assed tank was for) meaning that the Shuttle had more thrust than the FH by that amount.

I hope the methane-burning Raptor engines come on line soon. I believe we’ll see those replacing the Merlin 1D engines in the FH, assuming that the FH isn’t a spur line. There are two customers lined up for it, and that’s it, but of course now it is successful instead of vaporware, so heavier payloads can be designed to take advantage of it. The new rumor is, the two guys set up to orbit the Moon within the next year or will be aboard the BFR instead, and that is slated to use the Raptor.

Search link for YouTube vids of the launch:

http://www.google.com/search?q=falcon+heavy+launch+site:youtube.com

[rlmorel]

I think they meant lift capability (as in payload) not total weight hefted into orbit...this is their graphic from their website (for what it is worth):

[Moonman62]

I hope the methane-burning Raptor engines come on line soon. I believe we’ll see those replacing the Merlin 1D engines in the FH, assuming that the FH isn’t a spur line. There are two customers lined up for it, and that’s it, but of course now it is successful instead of vaporware, so heavier payloads can be designed to take advantage of it. The new rumor is, the two guys set up to orbit the Moon within the next year or will be aboard the BFR instead, and that is slated to use the Raptor.

I think it's more than a rumor. Musk actually said it a couple of days ago. He said early work on the BFR is going so well that they are going to work on that rather than put much else into the Falcon Heavy.