Updated on: December 22, 2017 / 3:00 PM EST / CBS News SpaceX founder Elon Musk posted the first pictures of the company's Falcon Heavy booster Wednesday, showing the powerful rocket in its hangar at the base of historic launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center where it is being readied for a long-awaited maiden flight next month. The payload for the rocket's first launch will be Musk's "midnight cherry Tesla Roadster playing Space Oddity," he tweeted three weeks ago, saying the rocket will boost the electric car past the orbit of Mars on a trajectory around the sun. A specific launch date has not yet been announced. "Falcon Heavy to launch next month from Apollo 11 pad at the Cape," he tweeted. "Will have double thrust of next largest rocket. Guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another." The Falcon Heavy, made up of three Falcon 9 first stages strapped together and topped by an upper stage on the middle booster, will be the world's most powerful rocket when it finally flies, generating more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff from 27 Merlin engines -- nine per core vehicle. The business end of the Falcon Heavy: 27 Merlin engines -- nine per core stage -- will generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, making it the most powerful operational rocket in the world when it takes off on its maiden flight next month. SpaceX That's enough launch power to lift 119,000 pounds to low-Earth orbit, which SpaceX says on its website is "equivalent to a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel ... more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the (United Launch Alliance) Delta 4 Heavy, at one-third the cost." SpaceX says the base price of a Falcon Heavy is $90 million, but launch costs vary widely from mission to mission and it's not yet known what the cost of an actual flight might be. The SpaceX Falcon Heavy, being readied for launch from the Kennedy Space Center next month. SpaceX