SpaceX’s most powerful rocket is on a landmark mission at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
This marked the fourth takeoff of the Falcon Heavy, For the first time in more than three yearsand saw that it was equipped with three Falcon 9 boosters.
Booster, self-launched at regular intervals to carry SpaceXStarlink satellites are in orbit and need to give their big brothers the thrust they need to reach the stars.
Watch the launch here from 1.30pm UK time.
Among the payloads for the USSF-44 mission in Cape Canaveral, Florida, are two U.S. Space Force craft, including a tiny satellite called TETRA-1, which was created for “various prototype missions.” made.
The other ship being carried is classified.
Issues with getting the payload ready have delayed the launch – originally scheduled for 2020 – several times.
How the launch will go
SpaceX is aiming to launch at 9.41am local time (1.41pm UK).
Conditions were favorable ahead of the rescheduled takeoff date, and blue skies greeted the rocket as it rolled toward launch pad 39A on Monday.
A little over a minute after launch, we’ll reach the point at which the rocket’s mechanical stress peaks – shortly after, the boosters on either side of it will cut off the engine and separate from the main rocket.
Both will touch down at SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral landing site around 8 minutes after launch.
At that point, the main rocket will leave Earth’s atmosphere before the payload separates.
SpaceX boss Elon Musk Ahead of the company’s most important launch, retweeted a photo of the rocket being ready for the planned Starship mission next month.
The company hopes to put a large rocket system into orbit for the first time in December — a key demonstration as it aims to send NASA astronauts to the moon in the next few years.