Today, February 6, crowds that gathered around Cape Canaveral, Florida were treated to a spectacular sight. At 3:45 ET (12:45 PT) launch pad 39A, that saw the Apollo moon missions, roared to life as the SpaceX Falcon Heavy lifted off on its first test flight. The launch was a success sending a red Tesla roadster, along with a dummy called starman, on its way to Mars.
Once the Falcon Heavy cleared the
launch tower it soared into space where the two side boosters
separated from the core. The boosters were then brought down for
synchronized landings on side-by-side landing pads at Cape Canaveral.
Even though we have seen several successful rocket landings this one
was breathtaking when we witnessed the two rockets in perfect
synchronicity. The feed cut off before we could see if the core
rocket landed on the drone ship.
The Falcon Heavy consist of three
modified Falcon 9 rockets connected to each other to form a tall core
and two side boosters. Each rocket has 9 powerful engines to give the
Falcon Heavy 27 engines creating over 5,300,000 pounds of thrust. The
Falcon Heavy gives SpaceX the capability to carry larger payloads, up
to 140,000 pounds, into low Earth orbit.
