SpaceX
launched its Falcon Heavy rocket on Tuesday from Kennedy Space Center in
Florida, carrying 24 experimental satellites in what Elon Musk’s rocket company
called one of the most difficult launches it has attempted.
The craft blasted off to cheers from onlookers at 2:30
a.m. (0630 GMT) after a three-hour delay from the original launch time late
Monday.
The boosters separated safely as the craft
began its six-hour mission to deploy the satellites.
The two-side booster rockets returned safely
to Earth, landing on adjacent Air Force landing pads, but the rocket’s center
booster missed its mark, crashing in the Atlantic ocean.
Musk, who predicted trouble with landing the
center booster on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic, said on Twitter early
Tuesday, “It was a long shot.”
The mission, dubbed Space Test Program 2
(STP-2), is the third for the Falcon Heavy rocket, which SpaceX describes as
the most powerful launch system in the world.
It was commissioned by the U.S. Department of
Defense, the key contractor for commercial space companies such as SpaceX.
The company is putting satellites into orbit
for agencies including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), defense department laboratories, universities and a
non-profit organization, SpaceX said.
The mission is one of the most challenging in
SpaceX history, with four separate upper-stage engine burns and three separate
orbits to deploy satellites, the company said on its website.
SOLAR SAIL
The payloads on the satellites Falcon Heavy is
putting into orbit include an atomic clock NASA is testing for space
navigation, another testing new telescope technologies, and a solar sail
project part-funded by the Planetary Society, a non-profit organization headed
by Bill Nye, “The Science Guy” on television presentations.
The LightSail is a crowdfunded project that
aims to become the first spacecraft in earth orbit propelled solely by
sunlight, the society, which has championed solar propulsion for decades, says
on its website.
Falcon Heavy is the most powerful operational
rocket in the world “by a factor of two,” SpaceX says on its website. It has
the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 pounds) - more
than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel.
Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in
1973 from the same launch pad, delivered more payload to orbit, it says.