Space Exploration Technologies Corp. successfully launched the Falcon Heavy rocket Tuesday on its initial test flight, marking another coup for founder Elon Musk.
The blastoff from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center was closely followed by the global aerospace industry, and it capped multiple design changes, years of delays and a roughly $1 billion investment by SpaceX, as the company is commonly called.
With throngs of spectators on hand, the closely held Southern California company defied industry critics by flying the world’s most powerful rocket since U.S. astronauts landed on the moon almost five decades ago.
The 230-foot rocket, which featured 27 engines with the combined thrust of some 18
Boeing
Co.
747 jumbo jets, climbed into clear skies at 3:45 p.m. local time. It carried a Tesla roadster as a dummy payload and publicity stunt.
The launch countdown had been delayed for about two hours because of winds.
The rocket’s two side boosters shut down, then separated as expected less than three minutes into the flight. All other systems worked as designed during the ascent, apparently without any significant problems, and the cover protecting the payload separated precisely on cue.
“Everything you could want in a test flight,” said one of the narrators on the company’s video of the launch.
The flight demonstrated that the rocket’s design was able to withstand the stresses of so many engines operating simultaneously at supersonic speeds. That was considered one of the biggest hazards, along with separation of the two side boosters in space.
The pair of boosters returned for a vertical landing not far from the historic pad from which Apollo astronauts lifted off for lunar exploits. The central part of the rocket crashed, however, instead of landing vertically as planned on a floating platform.
But because the company previously pulled off some 20 similar landings by spent boosters, the single failure was more of a blemish than a significant setback to Tuesday’s flight
The flight prompted repeated applause and cheering among SpaceX employees, particularly because Mr. Musk for months had emphasized the risks and played down the likelihood of success. Just the day before, he had said he considered chances of pulling off the demonstration flight to be roughly 50-50.
SpaceX has revolutionized the launch business by vertically integrating operations, slashing prices and reusing the main engines and lower stage of its existing workhorse rockets, the Falcon 9 fleet. But throughout the years, Mr. Musk has remained focused on a, longer-term goal: devising mammoth rockets and spacecraft able to eventually establish colonies on Mars.
The Falcon Heavy was conceived around the beginning of the decade to carry both heavy payloads and people into orbit around Earth, and as a steppingstone to the next generation of rockets with enough thrust to roam the solar system. But on Monday, Mr. Musk surprised the aerospace community by disclosing that the company’s current heavy-lift champion, composed of three Falcon 9 boosters, likely will be reserved for unmanned missions.
Still, the Falcon Heavy could provide a cut-rate price to get the heaviest commercial and U.S. government payloads into orbit.
Lunar payload
50 tons*
