SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, the most powerful launch system on Earth, roared into the sky on Tuesday afternoon atop a pillar of smoke. The rocket's three reusable boosters lifted the vehicle skyward, ultimately helping send Elon Musk's personal Tesla Roadster on a journey toward Mars orbit. Musk, SpaceX's founder, was worried that his experimental 23-story rocket might explode with the force of 4 million pounds' worth of TNT. But Falcon Heavy did not meet that fate and successfully cleared Launchpad 39A here at Kennedy Space Center.
The rocket's two side boosters landed safely on the ground after launch on Tuesday. The central booster was supposed to land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, but it instead missed the ship and hit the water at a speed of 300 mph, Musk told reporters during a press conference after the launch. The booster didn't have enough propellant, he said, and its crash took out two propellers on the drone ship while showering the deck with shrapnel. After the launch, Musk said in a tweet that the upper stage — the part of the rocket carrying the car and its dummy driver, called Starman — successfully completed its burn to swing between Mars and Earth. "Third burn successful. Exceeded Mars orbit and kept going to the Asteroid Belt," Musk said, posting a photo of the orbital with his tweet.
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http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/06/technology/future/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-mainbar/index.html
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