Falcon Heavy took longer than expected, but still managed to launch years ago. The only reason they're not bothering to get it human-rated is that they've switched all focus to Starship.
This has actually caused some interesting dynamics:
- To get F9 human-rated, SpaceX had to perform many successful launches using the same configuration.
- Keeping the same configuration essentially froze any further development of F9.
- Development focus switched to a green-field successor, the BFR/Starship.
- Announcement of BFR/Starship caused an Osborne Effect for Falcon Heavy: anyone considering it (even SpaceX themselves!) would be better off waiting to see if Starship works https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect
- This stifled Falcon Heavy's market (which was already questionable/nascent), resulting in very few launches
- Having very few launches makes it hard to human-rate Falcon Heavy (in any case, SpaceX have bet the house on Starship)
This has actually caused some interesting dynamics:
- To get F9 human-rated, SpaceX had to perform many successful launches using the same configuration.
- Keeping the same configuration essentially froze any further development of F9.
- Development focus switched to a green-field successor, the BFR/Starship.
- Announcement of BFR/Starship caused an Osborne Effect for Falcon Heavy: anyone considering it (even SpaceX themselves!) would be better off waiting to see if Starship works https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect
- This stifled Falcon Heavy's market (which was already questionable/nascent), resulting in very few launches
- Having very few launches makes it hard to human-rate Falcon Heavy (in any case, SpaceX have bet the house on Starship)