SpaceX launch video: Awe-inspiring footage shows most powerful rocket on Earth taking off

Andrew Griffin
Wednesday 07 February 2018 10:37 GMT
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SpaceX successfully launches the Falcon Heavy — their most powerful rocket ever

Stunning video shows the awe-inspiring moment the most powerful rocket on Earth leaves it.

SpaceX's footage tracks the Falcon Heavy rocket – the most powerful one seen in decades – as its 27 engines and three boosters all light up and carry itself up into space. Unseen in the video is its strange payload: Elon Musk's Tesla car with a dummy inside of it, which is now making its way around deep space.

The liftoff of the rocket was initially delayed by winds high up in the atmosphere. But then, after those gusts cleared, the rocket managed to take off – and in awe-inspiring fashion.

Despite suggestions from Mr Musk that his company's most ambitious rocket could just end up being the world's biggest firework show, the liftoff went entirely to plan. The rest of the mission mostly did the same, though an attempt to land the centre core on a barge in the ocean failed.

Perhaps even more stunning than the footage of the rocket taking off is that of its two side boosters coming back down to land. Video taken near the pads they dropped onto shows them gracefully and simultaneously touching down, ready to be re-used as part of SpaceX's mission to make launches much cheaper.

Rocket boosters from the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket land successfully on two pads at Cape Canaveral air force station

SpaceX will continue to consult the videos and data it collected during the mission to help improve on the rocket and its launch. Eventually, a version of the same hardware could carry people to the moon – and even further, onto Mars.

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