It marked just the fourth liftoff for the Falcon Heavy, its first in more than three years, and saw it fitted with three Falcon 9 boosters. The boosters, regularly launched on their own to carry SpaceX’s Starlink satellites into orbit, were needed to give their bigger sibling the necessary boost to reach the stars. Image: The rocket moments before liftoff… Image: …and heading into orbit The payload for the USSF-44 mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida included two US Space Force spacecraft, including a microsatellite named TETRA-1, which was built for “various prototype missions.” The other vessel being transported is registered. Problems with the preparation of the payload had delayed the launch several times – it was originally planned to take place in 2020. Image: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket rolls for launch 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center How was the launch? The launch started at 9.41 am. local time (1.41pm UK). Conditions were favorable ahead of the rearranged liftoff date, with blue skies greeting the rocket as it rolled toward launch site 39A on Monday. Although heavy fog had descended on the site by Tuesday morning, it still started on time. A little more than a minute after launch, the moment of maximum mechanical stress on the rocket arrived – shortly after, its two side boosters cut their engines and separated from the main rocket. Both landed at SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral landing zones about eight minutes after launch. The main rocket had left Earth’s atmosphere by then, before the payload separated. “Sonic BOOMS!!” tweeted SpaceX boss Elon Musk as the boosters landed. ‘It’s just incredible’ Huge cheers greeted the sight of the boosters arriving back in Florida, which were equipped with cameras so that every moment of their descent was broadcast from SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. “One of them would normally be a whole rocket on its own,” space journalist Kate Arkless Gray told Sky News. “So this is the 150th and 151st landings that they’ve been able to make successfully. It’s just incredible.” The nuclear booster did not attempt to land, instead using all its fuel to launch the payload further into space. Image: One of two side boosters lands in Florida Musk had retweeted an image of the rocket being prepared, ahead of the company’s most important launch until next month’s planned Starship mission. The company hopes to launch the massive rocket system into orbit for the first time in December – a key demonstration as it aims to fly NASA astronauts to the Moon in the coming years. For more on science and technology, explore the future with Sky News at Big Ideas Live 2022. Find out more and book tickets here
