Later this year, tech entrepreneur turned space pioneer Elon Musk is planning the blastoff of a new rocket, the Falcon Heavy, that would be twice as powerful as any other in use and one of the biggest since the Apollo era?s mighty Saturn V. The stage for the rocket?s debut: the Kennedy Space Center?s Launch Complex 39A, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took off for the moon in 1969.
SpaceX?s use of 39A is the ultimate symbol that the government?s monopoly on space travel is over. To Musk, it also is proof of an additional triumph ? over his fellow billionaire and rival Jeffrey P. Bezos, who had fought to secure the launchpad for himself.
