All that said, I'll still be watching live whenever it happens. If they pull this off, it'll open up a lot of new possibilities for the space industry.
Unless you're a Grasshopper!
If we wanted to replace the ISS today (or double it's size), the FH could bring the price point down considerably.
FH: 63800kg LEO, 26700kg GTO
D-IVH: 28790kg LEO, 14220kg GTO
The Falcon 9 actually comes closer to the D-IVH in expendable mode than the D-IVH comes to the Falcon Heavy.
Although the Falcon Heavy is almost as big as the Saturn V, the launch setup is far simpler. It's lifted into vertical position at the pad. No vertical assembly building, no crawler-transporter. That's a big improvement. Takes some extra structural strength, which costs some payload, of course.
The fact that Falcon 9/Heavy only support horizontal integration is a bot of an issue for some payloads (particularly those with people, or big optics). SpaceX will be adding vertical integration (the ability to mount the payload after the rocket is vertical) to its pad at LC-39A.
It will be absolutely amazing to watch 3 boosters come back down to earth and all land. Even if they don't all land this time, they will one day.
On HN, there's no harm in simply waiting until a thing happens.
https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22announcement%20of%20an%20an...
I sure wish I could see this one in person. Maybe one of the later Falcon Heavy flights once the hype has made the tickets more accessible and affordable. Heck, last year I was able to get to see a Falcon 9 launch for no additional cost beyond admission, so maybe it won't even be that long.
