SpaceX launches its powerful Falcon Heavy rocket

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SpaceX launches its powerful Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/169712...-elon-musk

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket has pulled off its very first launch. The vehicle took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, this afternoon and soared to space, carrying its payload — CEO Elon Musk’s red Tesla Roadster — into orbit. The Falcon Heavy’s flight still isn’t quite over yet, but the rocket has shown its prowess and is likely ready to begin missions for customers.

Adding to the launch’s success, two of the Falcon Heavy’s rocket cores successfully touched down back on Earth after takeoff. The two outer boosters broke away mid-flight and returned to the Cape, touching down around 1,000 feet from one another on SpaceX’s concrete landing pads — Landing Zone 1 and Landing Zone 2. The center core then broke away from the vehicle’s upper stage, but it’s not yet clear whether it landed as intended on one of SpaceX’s autonomous drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean. That means SpaceX has now landed a total of 23 — and possibly 24 — rockets upright.