Wed, Feb 7, 2018, 4:00 PM · Advertisement Musk surprised reporters when he revealed that the Falcon Heavy would likely not be human-rated (certified to carry people). Instead, development on BFR has been going so well that the company now envisions skipping human-rating the Heavy entirely. The BFR is a reusable spaceship/rocket combination designed to deliver payloads (and people) into orbit as a part of SpaceX's Interplanetary Transport System. According to Musk, the booster (called the BRB, or Big Rocket Booster) will return to Earth, much like the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, around 10 minutes after the rocket takes off. The ship is actually the more complex part of the equation. Building a reusable spacecraft that can survive the heat of Earth reentry is incredibly challenging; it was one of the most difficult parts of designing the Space Shuttle. But the BFR's spaceship isn't designed to just hang out in low Earth orbit. The Falcon 9 can take care of that; it's designed to head out beyond our orbit. That much-hyped moon tourist flight? That will now take place on the BFR instead of the Falcon Heavy, according to Musk. But this also means that the ship has to be able to survive reentry at interplanetary, rather than orbital, velocities. The spaceship portion of the BFR might be ready for "short hopper flights" as early as 2019, said Musk, with a full test flight in the next three to four years. The bottom line is that development on the Falcon Heavy is pretty much over. Musk is happy with its performance and ready to turn it into a workhorse rocket. Musk commented that SpaceX could even strap another two boosters to the rocket to make it even more powerful, labeling it the "Falcon Super Heavy." Indeed, the versatility of the Falcon Heavy launch is one of its strongest attributes. "It's up to customers what they might want to launch," Elon Musk said at a post-launch press conference. "But it can launch things direct to Pluto and beyond. No stop needed." ADVERTISEMENT