SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has released photos of a new, more powerful Falcon rocket a month ahead of its first launch.

The pictures posted to Musk's Twitter account show the Falcon Heavy rocket inside a hangar at Cape Canaveral.

Before the rocket's first launch, a test flight in January, SpaceX will perform a test fire of the engines, planned for sometime before the end of December.

The Falcon Heavy has three times the number of engines as the company's standard Falcon 9 rocket. Musk said the test flight will "run at 92 percent," and max thrust at liftoff will be 5.1 million pounds, compared with Falcon 9's 1.7 million pounds of thrust at sea level.

The Falcon Heavy will lift off from the same launch pad as the powerful Saturn V Apollo 11 moon rocket, the SpaceX CEO said.

Musk has said the cargo for the test flight will be his cherry-red Tesla Roadster electric car. He's also said the Falcon Heavy could blow up.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.