SpaceX launches its Falcon Heavy for the first time in 3 YEARS
SpaceX launches its Falcon Heavy for the first time in 3 YEARS: World’s most powerful operational rocket releases 5 MILLION pounds during its fourth mission to space that delivered US military satellites
- SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy for the first time in three years
- This is only the fourth time the 229-foot-tall rocket has lifted off to space
- It took off at 9:41am ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida
SpaceX has successfully launched its Falcon Heavy – the world’s most powerful operational rocket- for the first time in three years in a mission that hauled US military satellites into space.
This rocket is 229 feet tall, equivalent to three Falcon 9 rockets stacked on top of each other, and features 28 Merlin engines, while Falcon 9 has just nine.
The launch pad was cloaked in a thick layer of fog, making it near impossible to see the rocket, but the Falcon Heavy light up the area when it ignited its engines and released about five million pounds of thrust before shooting off around 9:41am ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The rocket’s two side boosters landed in synchrony on adjacent concrete slabs along Florida’s east coast roughly eight minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX plans to use this massive rocket to send a lander to the moon in 2023, ahead of the epic 2025 lunar landing that will see the first woman and person of color walk on the surface – the first time humans have been back in 50 years.
SpaceX has successfully launched its Falcon Heavy – the world’s most powerful operational rocket- for the first time in three years. Pictured is 14 minutes before liftoff
The joint SpaceX and Space Force teams began fueling the rocket with more than 1,400 tons of propellant at 8:48am ET. It burns about more than seven tons per second.