LIFTOFF!

One of the biggest news stories this week is Falcon Heavy. Launching from famous platform 39A, which launched the Apollo moon missions as well as the shuttle missions, Falcon Heavy went down in history as the most powerful rocket ever.

Kennedy Space Center was lined with traffic as eager Floridians got ready for the launch. Falcon Heavy lifted off on Tuesday February 6th almost perfectly. This rocket is the only rocket since the Saturn V (the one who sent humans to the moon) that could lift 140,000 pounds.

At 3:45 in the afternoon, after a few push backs, the rockets rumbled ready to lift off. The sound could be heard from miles and the shaking could be felt across the cape. The rocket launched, and with it was a Tesla Roadster that would eventually blare David Bowie's Space Oddity throughout the atmosphere.

Much like the space shuttle program, the Falcon Heavy rocket released the boosters from the sides and let them fall back into Earth's atmosphere. This left just the middle portion. After further ascending, the rocket released the bottom part of what was left of the middle section. This part was supposed to fall back down to Earth and land on a drone ship. Later, it was discovered that the center core did not land on the drone, and missed entirely.

Fun fact: the center core hit the water at 300 miles an hour

Anyway, other than the missed landing, the launch was a pretty big success. After the upper capsule separated from the center portion, the rest of the rocket carried the roadster and the dummy to a space trips around Earth's orbit and possibly to the asteroid belt. SpaceX has stated that the roadster could make it out there for awhile.

The Tesla has three cameras attached to it. We can ride around with it for a bit.

You can watch the launch here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c