1) At $90 million SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launch is less than Atlas V and Delta IV
2) The Centre booster rocket, which Musk had predicted was less likely to be salvaged, slammed into the Atlanti
3) Two rockets landed safe on Earth
4) The move could be a big boost for space travel and make passenger space flight a near possibility
Falcon Heavy’s launch on Tuesday is a significant push in passenger spaceflight. What makes the move special is the pricing. Elon Musk, the brains behind the project, has said that it cost him $90 million to launch the rocket.
That's lower than the US$109 million price tag for the launch of the Atlas V rocket. It's also a significant saving versus the US$400 million per launch price tag of the Delta IV.
This move could energise the industry and make passenger spaceflight a possibility sooner than we think. According to a piece in Time, the heavy-lift boosters are technology you can use not just to get to Earth orbit, but to get out of it too, pressing on to deep-space destinations like the moon and Mars.
Earlier, the world's most powerful rocket, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, roared into space through clear blue skies on its debut test flight on Tuesday from a Florida launch site in another milestone for billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's private rocket service.
SpaceX's webcast showed Musk's Tesla roadster soaring into space, as David Bowie's "Space Oddity" played in the background -- with the words "DON'T PANIC" visible on the dashboard, in an apparent nod to the sci-fi series the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
Musk posted a video of the car on Twitter after launch, in which he can be heard laughing in the background as a camera behind the mannequin's head shows the car apparently in orbit around Earth.
"It actually really doesn't look real, it's crazy," Musk can be heard saying.
He later posted another video showing a "live view of Starman" appearing to cruise, its gloved hand on the wheel, through the darkness of space, the Earth's image reflected on its glossy red surface.
Boisterous cheering could be heard from SpaceX workers at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California, where a livestream feed of the event originated. At least 2,000 spectators cheered the blastoff from a campground near Cocoa Beach, 5 miles (8 km) from the space centre.
Within three minutes, the Falcon Heavy's two side boosters separated from the central rocket in one of the most critical points of the flight.
Then, capitalising on cost-cutting reusable rocket technology pioneered by SpaceX, the two boosters flew themselves back to Earth for safe simultaneous touchdowns on twin landing pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, about eight minutes after launch. Each rocket unleashed a double sonic boom as it neared the landing zone.
The centre booster rocket, which SpaceX had predicted was less likely to be salvaged, slammed into the Atlantic at about 300 miles per hour (483 kph), showering the deck of the nearby drone landing vessel and destroying two of the ship's thrusters, Musk told a post-launch news conference.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "The solid rocket boosters of SpaceXs first Falcon Heavy rocket come back for landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}