SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket successfully lifted off Thursday, marking the towering booster’s second flight and its first commercial launch. This was also the first time that all three of the rocket’s reusable boosters returned safely to Earth.
The Falcon Heavy roared into space at 6:35 p.m. ET from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The massive booster carried into orbit a 13,000-pound Saudi telecommunications satellite designed to provide television, internet and mobile phone service to the Middle East, Africa and Europe. I was lucky enough to witness this from Florida.
Following the second launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, all three of the rocket’s booster cores successfully landed back on Earth. The two outer cores of the rocket touched down on SpaceX’s two concrete landing pads at Cape Canaveral, Florida near the site of the launch. The center core touched down on one of the company’s drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean.
It’s the first time that SpaceX has landed all three rocket cores from one Falcon Heavy flight. The first time Falcon Heavy flew, back in February of 2018, only the two outer cores made it back to Earth in one piece. The center core of that launch missed its target drone ship, when it failed to light all three engines needed to land because of a fuel shortage. So instead the rocket booster slammed into the ocean at 300 miles per hour. The synchronized booster landing became one of the most iconic images of the launch, with many likening it to a ballet.
SpaceX managed to stick all three landings, and it may have helped that all three boosters used for this flight were upgraded versions of SpaceX’s rockets, knows as Block 5. This version is made to optimize reusability, making it easier for SpaceX to land the vehicles and then turn them around quickly for future flights.
