Flight of the Falcon: Moment Elon Musk fired the world's most powerful rocket and a Tesla Roadster to MARS (with Bowie's Life on Mars on its stereo and a crash-test dummy at the wheel) then landed two booster rockets together in perfect sync
- 'Falcon Heavy' has finally blasted off from Cape Canaveral in a historic launch for Elon Musk's SpaceX
- The massive three-core rocket is carrying Musk's red Tesla Roadster, with a dummy inside dubbed Starman
- Powered by 27 engines, the rocket features three reusable cores, two of which were filmed returning to Earth
- After launch, main module carrying the Roadster separated from the rocket, and is on its way to deep space
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy megarocket has finally blasted off from the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, carrying Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla Roadster on a journey to Mars.
After pushing back the launch time twice today due to wind speeds, the massive rocket launched at 3:45 p.m. ET, just before the launch window was set to close.
'You've heard the call out - vehicle is supersonic' the announcer said, as the rocket soared through the sky to massive cheers from the crowd below.
Today's successful launch marked the maiden flight of what's now the most powerful operational rocket in the world.
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Just over three minutes into the launch, the side boosters detached from the rocket and launch operators confirmed it was on the right trajectory.
In another incredible accomplishment, the Falcon Heavy's side boosters touched smoothly back down to Earth on two separate landing pads about 8 minutes in, after surviving the re-entry burns.
'The Falcons have landed' the announcers said, as onlookers cheered and whooped wildly in the background.
As planned, the 230-foot-long rocket’s central core then detached from the main module to begin its controlled descent back to Earth.
For now, however, it remains unclear if it safely landed down on the firm's 'Of Course I Still Love You' drone ship in the Pacific Ocean, as the cameras tracking its journey cut out.
A source told the Verge that the middle core missed the drone ship where it was supposed to land, but SpaceX has yet to confirm this publicly.
'Meanwhile, the second stage is continuing its trajectory towards Mars,' the SpaceX team said. 'It was an outstanding test flight of the Falcon Heavy.'
'Everything that you could want in a test flight - we got here,' the team said.
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