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SpaceX launches Falcon Heavy rocket for first time in three years

Thick fog shrouded Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the rocket blasted off.
Thick fog shrouded Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the rocket blasted off. Thick fog shrouded Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the rocket blasted off.

SpaceX launched its mega Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time in more than three years on Tuesday, hoisting satellites for the military and then achieving side-by-side booster landings back near the launchpad.

Thick fog shrouded Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center as the rocket blasted off mid-morning.

Both side boosters peeled away two minutes after liftoff, flew back to Cape Canaveral, Florida, and landed alongside one another, just a few seconds apart.

SpaceX Launch
SpaceX Launch A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida (John Raoux/AP/PA)

The core stage was discarded at sea, its entire energy needed to get the Space Force’s satellites to their intended extra-high orbit.

This was SpaceX’s fourth flight of a Falcon Heavy, currently the most powerful rocket in use.

The first, in 2018, launched SpaceX chief Elon Musk’s red Tesla convertible; the next two Heavy launches followed in 2019, lifting satellites.